To form a provincial estimate of the value of a writer's productions,
it is not directly necessary to know the subject on which he has
thought, or what it is that he has said about it; that would imply
a perusal of all his works. It will be enough, in the main, to know
_how_ he has thought. This, which means the essential temper or
general quality of his mind, may be precisely determined by his style.
A man's style shows the _formal_ nature of all his thoughts--the
formal nature which can never change, be the subject or the character
of his thoughts what it may: it is, as it were, the dough out of which
all the contents of his mind are kneaded. When Eulenspiegel was asked
how long it would take to walk to the next village, he gave the
seemingly incongruous answer: _Walk_. He wanted to find out by the
man's pace the distance he would cover in a given time. In the same
way, when I have read a few pages of an author, I know fairly well how
far he can bring me.
Every mediocre writer tries to mask his own natural style, because in
his heart he knows the truth of what I am saying. He is thus forced,
at the outset, to give up any attempt at being frank or naive--a
privilege which is thereby reserved for superior minds, conscious of
their own worth, and therefore sure of themselves.
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