The writer without style, however, just writes on without second thought; the spectator is altogether lacking in him; he cannot contemplate his work from a distance, nor, indeed, at all. This explains the unconsciousness and innocence in bad writing--not in bad style, which is neither unconscious nor innocent! The stylist, on the other hand, is always the actor to his own spectator; he must get his effect; even Truth he uses as a means to his effect. If a truth is too repulsive, he throws this or that cloak over it; if it is uninteresting, he envelops it in mysticism (mysticism is simply an artist's trick); in a word, he æstheticizes, that is, falsifies everything, to please the second person in his duality, the spectator. Even if he gets his effects by moderation of statements, he is to be distrusted, for it is the moderation and not Truth that is aimed at. And, then, his temptation to employ metaphors, to work up an interesting madness, to rhapsodize--these most potent means to great effects, these falsifications! Well, are we to assent, then, to the old philosophic prejudice against style and refuse to believe any philosopher who does not write badly? 99 _Modern Writing_ The greatest fault of modern style is that it is a smirking style. It fawns upon the reader, it insinuates, it has the manner of an amiable dog. If it does something smart, it stops immediately, wags its tail, and waits confidently for your approval. You will guess now why those little regiments of dots are scattered so liberally over the pages of the best-known English novelist. It is H.G. Wells's style wagging its tail. 100 _The Precise_ There have been writers--there _are_ writers--whose only title to fame is an interesting defect. They are unable to write soundly, and this inability, being abnormal, is more interesting than sound writing, which is only normal. For to limp or to hop on one leg is never pedestrian--what do I say?--is _not even_ pedestrian. 101 _Paradox_ What is paradox? The "bull" raised to a form of literary art? 102 _The Platitude_ There should be no platitudes in the works of a sincere author. A platitude is an idea not understood by its writer--in one word, a shibboleth. 103 _Praise?_ It is usual to extol the industry of those realists who put _everything_ into their books, but they should rather be censured for their want of taste. The truth is that they lack the selective faculty--lack, that is, art. Afraid to omit anything from their reproductions of existence--lest they omit what is most significant--they include _all_: the easiest course. The easiest course, that is--for the writers. 104 _Hostility of Thinkers_