Wilbers: Is artful writing still possible in our frenzied, technological world?

"I have some books to lend you," my neighbor Tom said.

He was out for his daily walk with his tall, hand-carved cane. I was putting in my garden when I looked up and saw him. Among other things, Tom collects antique clocks, straight razors and books.

"They're volumes of the Spectator," he said. "Do you know how old they are?"

I did. As a young man in the early 18th century, Benjamin Franklin had honed his writing skills by studying and imitating the essays of Joseph Addison and Richard Steele published as the Spectator.

"I knew you would know," he said. "Most of my friends just give me a blank look when I mention I have them. I'll bring them over for you."

A few minutes later Tom returned with a cardboard box.

"Keep them as long as you like," he said. "I tried to sell them to a rare books dealer, but he already has a set."

The title page reads "THE SPECTATOR. VOLUME the FIRST. CAREFULLY CORRECTED. EDINBURGH: Printed by Hamilton, Balfour, & Neill, for JOHN WOOD, And fold at his Shop, at Milton's Head, Weft End of the New Exchange, and by the Bookfellers in Town and Country. MDCCLXI."

I had read some of these essays in graduate school, but in modern editions. The typeface would take some getting used to, and I was rusty on my Roman numerals. I looked up a conversion chart on the Internet. 1761. The book in my hands was 252 years old. I wondered how many human-made objects I had touched in my life were that old.

Addison and Steele set the standard for good writing in the English-speaking world for generations. Linking morality, wit and philosophy and promoting family, marriage and courtesy, their essays were widely read throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Imagine being guided today by such eloquent voices "promoting virtue and knowledge" and "recommending whatfoever may be either ufeful or ornamental to fociety," voices that went beyond utility to emphasize character, civility and grace.

In place of this central, norm-setting authority, what do we have today?

But we can learn from the past.

We still need to know how to write. Whether in mission statements or on company websites, we still need the capacity to go beyond merely conveying information. Artful writing, grounded in shared values, will be what inspires, sells and endures for centuries to come.