Thus, he writes as a moralist, but a moralist who acknowledges fallibility and slips out from underneath every consistent moral rule. He is political, but expresses his views through evasiveness, insistence on privacy, and refusal to conform. He has an educational theory, but it is one that has no time for schools or rhetorical exercises or compulsion of any kind. When it comes to etiquette, style, virtue, or almost anything else, he constantly adds remarks along the lines of “But I don’t know” or “Then again” before switching to some unexpected new angle.
