Life's Enthusiasms

By

David Starr Jordan

President of Leland Stanford Junior University

Boston:

American Unitarian Association

MDCCCCVI



To Melville Best Anderson



That is poetry in which truth is expressed in the fewest possible words,
in words which are inevitable, in words which could not be changed
without weakening the meaning or throwing discord into the melody. To
choose the right word and to discard all others, this is the chief
factor in good writing. To learn good poetry by heart is to acquire help
toward doing this, instinctively automatically as other habits are
acquired. In the affairs of life, then, is no form of good manners, no
habit of usage more valuable than the habit of good English.