Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1858-06-24
THE GAZETTE.
THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE "a, 1858
LABOR INDISPENSABLE TO EXCEL-
IENCE

LENCE.
10 the last Quarterly Review, under tie
head of Public Speaking" there rs an ex'
celent article on this subject, founded upon
an address delivered by Lord Syanhope 10
the University Of Aberdeen. The reviewer
tells Us that Lord Stanhope distinctly told
the students that nothing great was to be &C
complished without labor, and that there was
no such thing as "Heaven born genius" that
is, genius which pours forth its stores sporta.
neously without the assistance OF labor or
study. Even where the soil was richest, the
most careful culture is necessary to develop
its strength to its fullest extent. This senti-
ment but responds to one uttered by CHrran
the man, of all others, whose speecheS
read mos, like aspirations of the mOment--
10 the effect, that there ia no inspiration IN
these DAYS, and that those portions o! his
speecbes which looked most like brilliant
impromptus. were precisely the very portions
that we're studied with the greatest intensity.
Moore has told US with what labor hespeech-
es of Sheridan we're gotten up, and with how
much pains be treasured up, refined, improS-
ed, and prepared for use, the wit that all the
world believed to have been born with the &C.
casion.
OF all other writer's, poets are believed by
the uninitiated, to be the least Indebted to
labor. The saying of Horace 1.-The poet Is
born, not made" e pOeta mdnsc'tur non tit'
has produced vast deal oi m,sappTehcns!0n.
1t may he true that no man can be poet
who does not inherit from nature what Is
commonly understood as the noetlcal faculty.
OF that we know nothing. Blu. this we do
know, tina. there is no art upon the lace OF
the earth more susceptible Of improvement
than the art of poetry. To be conslnced OF
it, we need only examine, chronoiogicaily,
the works Of any great poet Whatsoever
Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, tried by tins
test, will all be found to have improved as
they advanced. No poet ever made greater
progress 10 poetry than Pope, although ne
would have Us believe Otherwise, Tor DC says
in speaking OF his youth,
81 Iisped in numbers, for the numbers came.
To Which the reviewer very curtiy answers,
that if thew really came unsought, 1t was
felicity which abandoned him when he got
older"
IL ANYBODY ever wrote from Inspiration,
one would think that Byron did. But Lord
Stanhope says, in conversation with him,
he booted at the very idea Of inspiration; and
Trelawpey tells us that he lab'red incessant-
lv in his vocation. FROM 1909 to 1924, (in
which last year be died. he published at
least fifty thousand lines, prod'glous per
Torrance. Shakespeare, who is supposed 10
have been writing twenty-three years. pub
Gshed about six;y-eight thousand lines OF
dramatic blank verse. There is, besides,
vast deal of prose in all his dramas. Be
sides these we have large number OF songs,
all his sonnets, his Venus and Adonis, and
his Rsne of Lucrece. This also was pTodl-
eious quantity, and although the players say,
in their preface, that be never blo!ted any
thing, this by no means proves that De oio nj
labor, but, only that be did not write the
line down until he had perfected 1t IN mis-
own head. This process was also pursued
by Burns, who never blotted anything at
all, but " DO nevertheless composed with great
labor. Milton worked day and night at Far"
adise Lost for six years, getting such frlenus
as called to see him to write down the lines
be had composed. To the best of our recol
lection, Paradise Lost contains about ten
thousand five hundred lines, so that Milton
COMPOSED while at work on it, about lioO
lines q year, or, less than five day, on an
average. What labor, what work, and
above all, what man!
PROSE writers who succeed in securing
lasting reputation, are, 10 general, as iaoo-
rious as successful poets. Pascal wrote over "
bis Provincial Letters many times; Button
copied one of his works over eleven times be-
fore be sent it to the press; Burke generally
sent the third or fourth drausht OF bis pam,
phlets to the press, and Sserne was em' ioyea
for six months in perecting very small VOL
ume. But there is nothing which requires
more study, or which is more certain OF at
tainuent, where the proper amount OF study
has been employed, than public speaking
Anybody, with good parts, and without i'm,
pedment in utterance, can speak, 1t be VIII
work hard enough. Nobody ever ava, or
ever will, or ever can, make q hrst-ciass
speaker without labor. Good spouters they
may make--taking speeches they, may dsiiT-
er. But they will always want depth where