Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/185

 A LITTLE NOTE TO M. PAUL BOURGET

[The preceding squib was assailed in The North American Review in an article entitled &quot;Mark Twain and Paul Bourget,&quot; by Max O Rell. The following little note is a Rejoinder to that article. It is possible that the position assumed here that M. Bourget dictated the O Rell article himself is untenable.]

YOU have every right, my dear M. Bourget, to retort upon me by dictation, if you prefer that method to writing at me with your pen; but if I may say it without hurt and certainly I mean no offense I believe you would have acquitted your self better with the pen. With the pen you are at home; it is your natural weapon; you use it with grace, eloquence, charm, persuasiveness, when men are to be convinced, and with formidable effect when they have earned a castigation. But I am sure I see signs in the above article that you are either unac customed to dictating or are out of practice. If you will reread it you will notice, yourself, that it lacks definiteness ; that it lacks purpose; that it lacks co herence; that it lacks a subject to talk about; that it is loose and \vabbly; that it wanders around; that it loses itself early and does not find itself any more. There are some other defects, as you will notice, but I think I have named the main ones. I feel sure that they are all due to your lack of practice in dictating.

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