One must be an illusionist and not a visionary.

Illusions come from heaven, and errors come from us.

March 10.

— In this sense, to write naturally is to write well without reflection. But one who has reflected on style cannot write like one who has never paid attention to it.

Tacitus. And all those words that are obscure only once.

That style or that elocution in which words, like the waters of a little brook, seem to roll over pebbles, does not charm attention. To speak in waves, in sheets of water.

... and who enchant the dishes (the cooks).

It is to imitate the simple that we must be exhorted. We shall always mix enough of the composite into it. — It is the model of these models that one must offer pupils.

March 11.

Athens. People thought and spoke better there than elsewhere.

... as there are centuries when stomachs digest better!

One no longer has merely the greed, but even the ambition for gain.

All art comes from intelligence. But one may have intelligence without having any art, any talent properly so called, that is, intelligence wholly pure, without any determined or fixed or invariable modification.

March 13.

“I had (said Boileau) the courage to maintain to him (to La Bruyère) that his address to the Academy was bad, although otherwise very ingenious and perfectly written, because eloquence does not consist in simply saying beautiful things, but tends to persuade.” Boileau was right according to the idea he formed of eloquence. But there are two kinds of it. One tends to arouse attention, admiration, and the other persuasion. The most beautiful or the purest is that which persuades. In the kind that seeks admiration, the orator speaks to himself and thinks only of himself. In the persuasive kind, he makes his listeners partners in everything he says. He makes use of them: he moves them and is not content to hold them... In the first case, he captivates their attention, and in the second he enchants it. He gives them not thoughts alone, but feelings, acts of will; he kneads them.