The oratorical technique flowed into Iorga's contribution to "belles-lettres". The antiquated polished style, Călinescu notes, even surfaced in his works of research, which revived the picturesque tone of medieval chronicles. Tudor Vianu believed it "amazing" that, even in 1894, Iorga had made "so rich a synthesis of the scholarly, literary and oratorical formulas". Critic Ion Simuț suggests that Iorga is at his best in travel writing, combining historical fresco and picturesque detail. The travel writer in young Iorga blended with the essayist and, occasionally, the philosopher, although, as Vianu suggests, the "Cugetări" aphorisms were literary exercises rather than "philosophical system." In fact, Iorga's various reflections attack the core tenets of philosophy, and describe the philosopher prototype as detached from reality, intolerant of others, and speculative.