SOURCE: Mackenzie, W. M. “Literary Style.” In Hugh Miller: A Critical Study, pp. 25-50. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905.

In the following excerpt, Mackenzie analyzes Miller's prose style and the literary models that influenced his development as a writer.

So far, then, have we been able to follow Miller in the careful training of himself for literary achievement. Without exactly playing “the sedulous ape,” he studies closely the general form, the tones and turns of expression characterising a well-defined group of writers, and shapes his own performance accordingly. It need not, therefore, be pronounced either futile or pedantic to endeavour to trace out more closely some of the affinities of Miller's style with the materials he so used. No analysis, indeed, can cumulatively explain the total result: style is a compound, not a mere literary mixture. Short of that, however, we can surely work to fuller knowledge and a...