that a woman wear nightclothes for work, or silk stockings for sport, or walk the stony lanes of the village in party dress and high-heeled shoes.
Of this sort is he who uses a grandiose phrase in a book for children, and writes a village dialogue in grandiose language.
I once heard a lady deliver a speech at a gathering of one of the associations, and her speech was a piece of prose that resembled an epic poem in the elegance of its style and its plunging into fancy, until I imagined myself at a session of al-Hariri or of al-Qadi al-Fadil, not at a meeting convened to consider the affairs of the modern woman.
Among the examples of putting a thing out of its place is what I once saw in a little girl of five who was, in her family, an object of astonishment and admiration. They claimed she was a marvel of intelligence and quickness of spirit because in her speech and her gestures she resembled grown-ups. I talked with the child and observed that she was imitating her mother and her aunts on both sides, since she kept company with no one else. And I saw in her speech and gestures an affectation that provoked discomfort instead of pleasure and admiration. I said to myself: better for this child to remain a child — to speak like the children of her own age instead of playing the pedant and straining after precocity. Everything is beautiful in its own place; and the child who mimics grown-ups is unsightly, like fruit out of season.
The girl's education in taste meets with special attention from most
parents, because from her earliest years they instill in her mind that she must strive to attract notice and win admiration. But this direction often drags her into affectation, for she attempts art in ignorance of its rules, and so falls into ugliness.
The rule it is well to follow in this matter is: when art fails us, let us hold fast to nature. For there is no disputing that nature is far better than ugly art.
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