Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1873-06-26
A Peep into Literary Workshops.
By Prof. William Mathews, Of the University Of Chi
cago, in the Chicago Tribune.

BY Prof William Mathews. Of the University Of Chi
oago, in the Chicago Tribune.
How shall we write !? Shall we,
who earn our living with the pen,
jot down our first thoughts in the
first order that occurs to US, or shall
we, before wrecking them upon ex-
preston, brood over them like hen
over her eggs, and, when we have
put them on paper, blot, prune,
touch, and retouch our sentences,
with the utmost care? That litera,
ture, though it requires peculiar
talents for its successful prosecution,
is also TO be regarded as an art,
which exacts certain degree Of ac>
quired skill, will be admitted by all
Unlike the other arts, however, it
hs. % apprenticeships, no recogniz-
ed schools of instruction, no grades
of teachers or scholars, but is learn
ed and praeticed by every man in
his own way, with no hints or helps
but such as his own brain or chance
observations may afford him an d
hence peep into the workshops of
those whom the world has honored
as masters of the art,-a glance at
their methods of producing their
magical efforts, may be both pleas
an and profitable There are some
literary advisers, of high repute,
who denounce all blots, erasures and
alterations. "Write as you talk"
says John Neal. Unfortunately, his
success does not commend his coun-
sci. No writer has shown more
conclusively by his failures that q
merciless pruning Of the vine is nee
essary to its frnitfulness. Neal had
abundant talents, even genius but
Washington Irving would make
more of Scotch pebble by its bril-
liant setting than Neal by his meth
cd of the crown jewell of the Emper-
or of all the Russias. "Never think
of mending what you WRITE" says
Goblet; "let it go; no patching"
"Endeavor," says Niebuhr, "never
to strike out anything of what you
have once written down. Punish
yourself by allowing once or twice
something to pass, though you see
you might give it better"
Second thoughts are best, is a
beggarly adage, the invention Of the
timid, the refuge of the weak, the
parent of universal scepticism. How
can that claim to be the birth of
your mind, which is the production
of deliberate selection, and of which
you may never determine whether
it shall be born at all And what
right have you to offer to the world
wisdom which has need to be criti-
cizod and sifted beforehand Gam
ganelli says truly that man might
often find at the nib of his pen what
he goes a great way in search Of
and l maintain that no man who
writes from pure love OF writing,
should be allowed to hold pen, if
he require to travel for its illustra-
tions much beyond its nib. | should
like to know where originality is to
be found, if it be not in a mans first
thoughts, or truth, save in the spon-
taneous testimony Of his faculties for
discerning it ?"
DR.. Johnson, in counselling young
writer's, advises them to train their
minds to start promptly, for it is
easier to improve in accuracy than
in speed. Robert Hall used to la
ment that he wrote so slowly and
laboriously that he could write but
little, while that had a stiffness from
which his spoken style was free.
Whatever the advantages of deliber-
ate composition, no man of sense
will pretend that the Horatian rule,
Nonum prematur IN dnnunl, is of uni
versal application.
Thackery has shrewdly suggest
ed that man who thinks of putting
away a composition for ten years
before giving 1t to the world, or ex-
ercising his own mature judgment
upon it, should first be sure of the
original strength and duration of the
work otherwise, on Withdrawing it
from the crypt, he may find that,
like some small wine, it has lost
what flavor it once had, and, when
opened, is only tasteless. Again, it
must be admitted that even to be I'm.
pleasantly hurried is not always and
purely an evil in writing for the
press. Hundreds of persons can tes-
tlfy that hurry and severe compress
sion from an instant summons that
brooks no delay have q tendency to
furnish the flint and steel for eliciting
sudden scintillations of originality
originality displayed at one time in
the picturesque felicity of the phrase
at another in the thought or its illus.
tIations. Who does not know that
to improvise is, sometimes, in effect,
to be forced into consciousness of
creative energies that would else
have slumbered through life ? Such
was the case with.the "Wizard ofthe
North" Sir Walter Scott. 81 can~
not pull we'll in long traces" he used
to say, "when the draught is far be-
hind me. / love to hear the press
humping, Gathering, and banging in
| lily CRl IL bhO hNNSuSltl
which almost always makes me work
BEST" De Quincy remarks that the
same stimulation to the creative fac
ulty occurs even moro VIGOROUSLY
in musical improvisions and ell
great executants on the organ have
had reason to bemoan their ability
to arrest those sudden felicities of
impassioned combinations, and those
flying arabesques of loveliest melody
which the magnetic inspiration of
the moment has avalled to excite.
But, while some writers dash off
their best things at heat, and 9TH
ers, like Campbell, the poet, d,cadle
too much over their compositions,
and only weaken them by the excess
sive use of the file, for most men the
rule is absolute, that great labor is
the price of excellence. The prompt