Below, James disagrees with Beasant's views. He believes that writers can write outside their own experience- without that, we wouldn't have much to read! He also does not believe that writing can be taught the same as art- "the grammar" of art, he says, is what makes all the difference.
"Mr. Besant says at the beginning of his essay that the "laws of fiction may be laid down and taught with as much precisions and exactness as the laws of harmony, perspective and proportion"
"It is equally excellent and inconclusive to say that one might write from experience... If experience consists of impressions, it may be said that impressions are experience".
…
