Do not destroy anything which you have written. It is well from time to
time to refer to past work. To find that one has progressed is always an
encouragement to further effort.

So far generally.

As this book does not happen to be a guide to style, it is impossible here
to discuss every point likely to arise during the aspirant's self-education
in the art of literary expression. But there are several scarlet sins
against which she must be briefly warned.

The worst of them is the sin of using trite expressions--phrases, figures,
metaphors, and quotations; such as--not to mince the matter, took occasion
to, won golden opinions, the cynosure of all eyes, mental vision, smell of
the lamp, read mark learn and inwardly digest, inclines towards, indulge
in, it is whispered, staple topic of conversation, hit the happy medium,
not wisely but too well, I grieve to say, reign supreme, much in request,
justify its existence, lend itself amiably to, choice galore, call for
remark, hail with delight; and forty thousand others. The work of some
writers is chiefly made up of these hackneyed locutions. Says
Schopenhauer, in an illuminative passage which I cull from his clever but
uneven essay "On Authorship and Style":--"Everyday authors are only half
conscious when they write, a fact which accounts for their want of
intellect and the tediousness of their writings: they do not really
themselves understand the meaning of their own words, because they take
ready-made words and learn them. Hence they combine whole phrases more
than words--_phrases banales_. This accounts for that obviously
characteristic want of clearly defined thought; in fact, they lack the die
that stamps their thoughts, they have no clear thought of their own; and