Greek treatises, and how much by studying the universe itself.  Advancing Science daily discredits the superstition; yet the advance of Criticism has not yet wholly discredited the parallel superstition in Art.  The earliest thinkers are no longer considered the wisest, but the earliest artists are still proclaimed the finest.  Even those who do not believe in this superiority are, for the most part, overawed by tradition and dare not openly question the supremacy of works which in their private convictions hold a very subordinate rank.  And this reserve is encouraged by the intemperate scorn of those who question the supremacy without having the knowledge or the sympathy which could fairly appreciate the earlier artists.  Attacks on the classics by men ignorant of the classical languages tend to perpetuate the superstition.

But be the merit of the classics, ancient and modern, what it may, no writer can become a classic by imitating them.  The principle of Sincerity here ministers to the principle of Beauty by forbidding imitation and enforcing rivalry.  Write what you can, and if you have the grace of felicitous expression or the power of energetic expression your style will be admirable and admired.  At any rate see that it be your own, and not another’s; on no other terms will the world listen to it.  You cannot be eloquent by borrowing from the opulence of another; you cannot be humorous by mimicking the whims of another; what was a pleasant smile dimpling his features becomes a grimace on yours.

It will not be supposed that I would have the great writers disregardod, as if nothing were to be learned from them; but the study of great writers should be the study of general principles as illustrated or revealed in these writers; and if properly pursued it will of itself lead to a condemnation of the notion of models.  What we may learn from them is a nice discrimination of the symbols which intelligibly express the shades of meaning and kindle emotion.  The writer wishes to give his thoughts a literary form.  This is for others, not for himself; consequently he must, before all things, desire to be intelligible, and to be so he must adapt his expressions to the mental condition of his audience.  If he employs arbitrary symbols, such as old words in new and unexpected senses, he may be clear as daylight to himself, but to others, dark as fog.  And the difficulty of original writing lies in this, that what is new and individual must find expression in old symbols.  This difficulty can only be mastered by a peculiar talent, strengthened and rendered nimble by practice, and the commerce with original minds.  Great writers should be our companions if we would learn to write greatly; but no familiarity with their manner will supply the place of native endowment.  Writers are born, no less than poets, and like poets, they learn to make their native gifts effective.  Practice, aiding their vigilant sensibility, teaches them, perhaps unconsciously,