119 PARt III: commUnIcAtIng wItH JoURnAl edItoRs: sUBmIssIon, AccePtAnce, RevIsIon And ReJectIon 6 John Leinenweber, trans., Letters of Saint Augustine (Tarrytown, NY: Triumph Books, 1992), 148 reconceived and rewritten. A paper in which the editor (and perhaps the reviewers) of a reputable top-tier journal has found significant flaws is a good candidate for such treatment. Even this, however, is a form of progress and can be seen in a positive light. That same creative writing teacher who insisted on the primary importance of perspective always urged his students to move on to the next project because, as he asserted, an author tends to keep writing the same story again and again in various forms, and only by moving on to the next manifestation will he or she ever get that story (close to) right. On a loftier note, Augustine of Hippo, a master of eloquence and pillar of the Western philosophical tradition, confessed in a letter that he endeavoured to be “one of those authors who write as they make progress and make progress by their writing,” and thus he welcomed criticism: “if I set down something with insufficient forethought or knowledge, it deserves to be condemned, not only by those who see it, but even by me.”6 Given that about 5,000,000 of Augustine’s words still survive for us today and that his numerous texts have inspired lively debate and profoundly influenced authors, scholars and leaders for nearly 2,000 years, he may have a valid point. So the gold to be mined here is focus on your intellectual progress and keep writing!