The real question is whether, if a man sets himself doggedly to
work, the appetite comes with eating, and whether the caged bird
begins to flutter its wings and to send out the song that it learnt
in the green heart of the wood. When Byron said that easy writing
made damned hard reading, he meant that careless conception and
hasty workmanship tend to blur the pattern and the colour of work.
The fault of the amateur is that he can make the coat, but he
cannot be bothered to make it fit. But it is not by any means true
that hard writing makes easy reading. The spirit of the amateur is
the spirit of the lover, who trembles at the thought that the
delicate creature he loves may learn to love him in return, if he
can but praise her worthily. The professional spirit is the spirit
in which a man carefully and courteously woos an elderly spinster
for the sake of her comfortable fortune. The amateur has an
irresponsible joy in his work; he is like the golfer who dreams of
mighty drives, and practises "putting" on his back lawn: the
professional writer gives his solid hours to his work in a
conscientious spirit, and is glad in hours of freedom to put the
tiresome business away.
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