"The first rule of the art of writing," said Rousseau, "is to speak plainly and to express one's thought exactly."
And Tolstoy:
"Think what you will, but in such a manner that every word may be understood by all. One cannot write anything bad in perfectly plain language."
I have demonstrated elsewhere that the satirical descriptions of the Paris Opera in the Nouvelle Héloise have much in common with Tolstoy's criticisms in What is Art?
[8] Journal, January 6, 1903.
[9] Quatrième Promenade.
[10] Letter to Birukov.
[11] Sebastopol in May, 1853.
[12] "The truth.... the only thing that has been left me of my moral conceptions, the sole thing that I shall still fulfil." (October 17, 1860.)
[13] Ibid.