These, no doubt,
helped to draw out the rank suggestion of Emerson. I wrote about
things of which I knew, and was, therefore, bound to be more
sincere with myself than in writing upon the Emersonian themes.
When a man tells what he knows, what he has seen or felt, he
is pretty sure to be himself. When I wrote upon more purely
intellectual themes, as I did about this time for the "Leader,"
the Emersonian influence was more potent, though less so than
in the first "Atlantic" essay.
Any man progresses in the formation of a style of his own in
proportion as he gets down to his own real thoughts and feelings,
and ceases to echo the thoughts and moods of another. Only thus
can he be sincere; and sincerity is the main secret of style.
What I wrote from "the push of reading," as Whitman calls it, was
largely an artificial product; I had not made it my own; but when
I wrote of country scenes and experiences, I touched the quick of
my mind, and it was more easy to be real and natural.
I also wrote in 1860 or 1861 a number of things for the "Saturday
Press" which exhaled the Emersonian perfume. If you will look them
over, you will see how my mind was working in the leading-strings
of Analogy--often a forced and unreal Analogy.
December, 1907
My Dear Friend,--
You ask me to tell you more about myself, my life, how it has been
with me, etc.
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