Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-10-05

lates TO itself, and utters us the expression
OF us lie. L have no belief that Shaks-
peare would ever have given us his immor
tai plays, but for the necessities which bro't
him SO much into contact with men On,.
SIDE OF ms authorship, he lived an active,
practlcal llfe-trOd the boards of ,benter.
managed men, looked after his money. rub.
oeo against society in multiplied ways. and
kept himself strong, healthy and abundant.
" TED with that food which was necessary
10 him.
Shakespeare had genius, it is true, but
genius without food is quite as helpless as n
barren acre. All great geniuses are i'm.
mense feeders. All true and healthy genius
es faSten for food upon everything and eve.
! rybody. Their antenne are always open
! for reception. Walter Scott was engaged
in the active duties of the legal profession
when writing his novels, and there was not
legend OF Scotland, nor bit OF history or
gossip, hor an old story-teller that lived
within Fifty miles Of him. that he did not
lay uuder tribute for mental food. 1t is
declared to the everlasting disgrace of Go
eIhe, that be practiced upon the affections of
women, even to old age, that he might ga.
lher food for poetry. Byron traversed Eu.
rope in search Of adventure, and rummaged
the scenes Of legend and story for food for
his Voraclons senses and sensibiites. His
Chllde Harold is nothing but record of
his iirelcsS foraging. All men who have
produced much, have fed honntifully.
The writers arc few, in whom we do not
notice something painfully wanting. We
do not always understand what it is, but wo
know that, while we may accord to them
good sense, and even genius. thcv fail IN
satisfy us. There is some good thing thew
Iack-Something unbalanced and partial
and one.Slded about them. We presume
that this is often the result of coustitu.
tiounl defect, but in most instances il is Mt.
trbutabIe to an insufficient nouriShment in
some department Of their nature. "Allbut J.
Is tile appropriate eptnph for the tomb.
| stone OF many an author and if we look
carefully into his history we shall find an
answer to the question "All but what p
We shall find, perhaps, that he is reclnse,
that his social nature is not fed ut all, and
that he is, of course, unsympathetc This
/ is o very frequent cUuse Of dissatisfaction
with an author as it gives always a morbid
tinge to his writings Dickens is eminent
y a social man, and eminently healthy and
sympathetic. Possibly an author may starve
his senses and become purely reflective,
yielding up his points of contact with the
outside world, and shutting the channels
by which the qualities of things find their
way TO his mind. Not unfrcqueuly n mans
domestic affections may be starved, or i'll
fed, and if so, the fact is sure to be betray.
ed in his writings And if writer's reli.
gious nature be starved, it invariably viii
ateS all his characteristic works. No man
who shuts out God and heaven from his
life can write without hetraying the poverty
Of bis diet. If an author would write salts.
factotily, touching oil kinds of human ma.
ture, he must feed every department of his
own natnrc, for he has nothing to give that
he does not receive.
As in animal so in mental life, there are
gormaDdizing and gluttOny, tending always
to paralysis of voluntary effort. The de.
vouring Of facts, as they are found both in
n lture and in books, indulgence in social
pleasures mmodcratcy and constantly,
pietism that feeds exclusively upon things
of religion, the feastng Of the Imagination
upon the creations Of fction-all these are
debilitaling and blessed thing to the
world it is that they unfit the mind for writ
i,g at all, as the overfeedng of the body
units its organs for labor. Plethoric minds
do not trouble the world with books, or
with conversation, or with preaching. Ac.
tivity simply demands food enough and in
sufficient variety, to feed its powers while
operative, from day to day. This is the
reason why immensely learned men have
rarely done much for the world. Many OF
them have won reputation, like remarkably
fat steers, for breadth of back and depth
of brisket, but they ore never known to
Beyond certain point of mental feeding,
over and above the necessities OF labor, the
mind eets sleepy and clumsy.
! hayo alluded to authors, particularly,
because, unlike the world in general, they
give form and record TO their lives. The
masses of men live as authors live, but their
lives are not put down in books, so that the
public may read any measure them We
will suppose that two men are fed upon the
same diet. Each shall have sufficient foot
for his religious, social esthetic, domestic
sensational and emotional natures, yet only
one of them shall embody in books the lift
which he draws from these varieties of nour
ishment. The other lives essentially the
same life, but it fails of record. 1t may b'
as rich and characteristic, in every particu
lar, as that of the author, but it fails of ar
tiStc form because, perhaps, he lacks tht
peculiar mental gift required for its con
struction So the real life of the authO
and the life of his reader may be the same
the one having advantage over the other il
no particular, and the fact that one is i'm
bodied 10 artistic forms comforting upon /
no essential excellence, What l have SAT-
about authors therefore, applies to oil man
} kind, engaged in whatever calling or pre-
, fession. If any portion Of any mans ma
ture be not well fed, he will betray the fac
In his lfe Poverty of food in any partcu
lar will surely bring poverty OF manifesto
ton in that department of life which is d(
priyed of its natural nourshment.
t A familiar illustration of the failure of
t life to secure its appropriate food will b
E found in men and women who live unmarr
D ed An old bachelor will sooner or late
[ hetrav the fact that his finer affections az