individual at different periods of life, shows this variableness of
taste.

These diversities of taste imply a susceptibility to improvement. Good
taste in writing forms no exception to the rule. While it seems to
require some basis in nature, no degree of inborn aptitude will
compensate for the lack of careful training.

To give his natural taste firmness and fineness a writer needs to read
the best literature, not merely so
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as to know it, but so as to feel the beauty, the fitness, the charm,
the strength, the delicacy of a well-chosen word.

The study of the proper arrangement and the most effective expression
of our thoughts prompts us to think more accurately. So close is the
connection between the thought and its expression that looseness of
style in speaking and writing may nearly always be traced to
indistinctness and feebleness in the grasp of the subject. No degree
of polish in expression will compensate for inadequacy of knowledge.
But with the fullest information upon any subject, there is still room
for the highest exercise of judgment and good sense in the proper
choice and arrangement of the thoughts, and of the words with which to
express them.

The concurrent testimony of those best qualified to render a decision,
has determined what authors reflect the finest literary taste, and