Woolf makes the curious but instantly sensical proposition that the rise of her own ilk - the paid writer - is what spelled the decline of fine letter writing.
"WAS IT... THE GROWTH OF WRITING AS A PAID PROFESSION, AND THE CHANGE WHICH THAT CHANGE OF FOCUS BROUGHT WITH IT THAT LED, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, TO THE DECLINE OF THIS HUMANE ART?"- VIRGINIA WOOLF
http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/11/20/the-humane-art-virginia-woolf/
