that neglect of the ancient classics, which are the best of all models
in the art of writing, will infallibly lead to a degeneration of
literature.

And the method of discovering the best qualities of style, and of
forming a theory of writing, is not to follow some trick or mannerism
that happens to please for the moment, but to study the way in which
great authors have done their best work.

It will be said that Schopenhauer tells us nothing we did not know
before. Perhaps so; as he himself says, the best things are seldom
new. But he puts the old truths in a fresh and forcible way; and no
one who knows anything of good literature will deny that these truths
are just now of very fit application.

It was probably to meet a real want that, a year or two ago, an
ingenious person succeeded in drawing a great number of English and
American writers into a confession of their literary creed and the art
they adopted in authorship; and the interesting volume in which he
gave these confessions to the world contained some very good advice,
although most of it had been said before in different forms. More
recently a new departure, of very doubtful use, has taken place; and
two books have been issued, which aim, the one at being an author's
manual, the other at giving hints on essays and how to write them.

A glance at these books will probably show that their authors have
still something to learn.

Both of these ventures seem, unhappily, to be popular; and, although
they may claim a position next-door to that of the present volume I