12 AN EGOTISTICAL CHAPTER 



was prominent ? What was subordinated ? I have 

 been accused of romancing at times. But it is not 

 true. I set down the thing exactly as it fell out. 

 People say, " I do not see what you do when I take 

 a walk." But for the most part they do, but the 

 fact as it lies there in nature is crude and raw: it 

 needs to be brought out, to be passed through the 

 heart and mind and presented in appropriate words. 

 This humanizes it and gives it an added charm and 

 significance. This, I take it, is what is meant by 

 idealizing and interpreting nature. We do not add 

 to or falsely color the facts: we disentangle them, 

 and invest them with the magic of written words. 



To give anything like vitality to one's style, one 

 must divest one's self of any false or accidental 

 or factitious mood or feeling, and get down to his 

 real self, and speak as directly and sincerely as he 

 does about his daily business or affairs, and with as 

 little affectation. One may write from the outside 

 of his mind, as it were, write and write, glibly and 

 learnedly, and make no impression; but when one 

 speaks from real insight and conviction of his own, 

 men are always glad to hear him, whether they 

 agree with him or not. So much writing or speak 

 ing is like mere machine-work, as if you turned a 

 crank and the piece or discourse came out. It is 

 not the man's real mind, his real experience. This 

 he does not know how to get at ; it has no con 

 nection with his speaking or writing faculty. How 



