If I had my life to live over again I would do frequently and with great care, what I thought of too late, and now practice feebly--I would strongly impress on my mind and very often recall, many such scenes, pictures, times or memories.

Very few people do this.

Hence in all novels and poems, especially the French, description generally smacks of imitation and mere manufacture.

It passes for "beautiful writing," but there is always something in really unaffected truth from nature which is caught by the true critic.

I read lately a French romance which is much admired, of this manufactured or second-hand kind.