it. At any rate, make an effort
to answer it."

Thus challenged, the prominent author pulled himself together. "Oh," he
said, sadly, "which of us knows whether he has natural ability or not,
and what is education, and what is life as one sees it, and what is
technical training? Do these poor young fellows think that one is tall
or short by taking thought? It is the same as that, it seems to me; or
if you prefer a mystical solution, I should say, if you have a longing,
from your earliest consciousness, to write poetry or fiction, and cannot
keep from doing it for any long time together, you are possibly born
with a gift for it. But this may be altogether a mistake; it may be the
effect of your early and incessant scribblings on the minds of
spectators wholly incompetent to judge of your abilities, such as your
fond parents. This must rather often happen if we can judge from what
nine-tenths of what is called literature is composed of. If your longing
to write is the real thing, or is not, still education will not help or
hinder you in doing it. No man was ever yet taught any art. He may be
taught a trade, and that is what most of the versing and prosing is, I
suppose. If you have the gift, you will technically train yourself: that
is, you will learn how to be simple and clear and honest. Charm you will
have got from your great-grandfather or great-grandmother; and life,
which is only another sort of school, will not qualify you to depict
life; but if you do not want to depict life, you will perhaps be able to
meet the demands of what our friend calls the current editors."

Here the prominent author rose, but we stayed him with a gesture. "There
is another question, the last: '6. Do you care to convey any hints or
suggestions gleaned from your personal experiences in the climb to
success that may make easier the gaining of the heights for the
beginner?"

The prominent author roared with laughter. "Read that again!" But when
we had done so, he became grave, even sorrowful. "Is it really true,
then, as we seem to see, that there is a large body of young people
taking up literature as a business? The thing that all my life I have
fondly dreamed was an art, dear and almost holy! Are they going into it
for the money there is in it? And am I, in my prominence--more or less
fraudulent, as you say--an incentive to them to persevere in their
enterprises? Is that what one has to come to after a life of
conscientious devotion to