I’m sure others have pointed this out, but here’s a passage from his autobiography where he describes how he trained himself as a writer.

At this time I met with an odd volume of the “Spectator.” I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished if possible to imitate it. With that view I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the sentiments in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should occur to me. Then I compared my “ Spectator “ with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them ..

Source

This process – learning to imitate publications, comparing one’s own writing to the original, and making corrections accordingly, is remarkably reminiscent of how today’s ChatGPT-style AIs are trained.