, 1873-03-30
4 PEEP INTO LITERARY WORKSHOPS.

VI EAoF. WILLIAM MATTHEW'S, OF TIE UE1fRny1T1
OF CHICAGO.
How shall We write? Shall ne, who earn ou1
living with the pen, jot down our first thoughtf
in the first order that occurs to US, or ahan We
before wreaking them upon ezpressica, brood
over them like hen over her eggs, and. wher
We have put them on paper, blot, prune, touch
and retouch our sentences, with the utmost
care? That literature, though it requires pecu.
lar talents for it's successful prosecution B nlse
to be regarded as HI art, which e1acts q ccrtal:
degree of acquired skill, will be admitted By au
Unlike the other arts, however, it has no appren-
| ticeahips no recognized schools Of instruction,
no grades Of teachers or scholars, but is termed
| and practised by every man in his own way, witt
| no hiuta or helps but such his own BRAIN or
| chance observations may afford him aud hence
a peep into the workshops OF those whom the
world has honored as masters Of tho art,--a
glance at their methods Of producing their mag
ical effocts, may be both pleasant and profit
able. There are somo literary advisers, Of
! high repute, who denource all blots, eras-
ures, cnd alterations. "Nrita as you
talk" says John Neal. Cnfortunatcly,
| his success does not commend his
| counsel. No writer las shown more conclusive
ly BY his failures that merciiess pruning 1t tho
| vine is necessary to it's fruitfulness. Neal has
abundant talents. even genius but Washington
Irving would make moro of Scotch pebb!e by
its brilliant setting than Neal by lis method Of
the crown jewel Of the Emperor Of all tho Rus
sias. "Noyer think OF mending what you
| w11te," Says cobbett; "let it 60; no patching"
+Endeavor," says Nicbuhr, "never to strike
out anything Of what you have once written
down. Punish yourself by allowing once OF
twice something to pass, though you see you
might give it better Write, write, BY all
MEANS" Says another. stake, it you will, the
first ubject that comes to your hand; but be
sure to treat it in tho FIRST mode that comes into
your head BY pursuing this process. yo, will
soonest arrive at the ar Of thinking With your
own thoughts. Celebrity best disporses tho
yslor Of the brain, and rallies ideas
into shape and service. " n As to the modes
OF e1plaining your subject, lay aaide your pen,
drop the deeign Of authorship altogether: 60
back to your ordinary walking and talking, and
endeavor to content yourself Herewith, If you
feelw:thin you the STRINGS Of moments hesi-
tation on this head. Second thoughts are
best, is beggarly adage, the invention Of the
timid, the refuge Of the weak, the parent Of
universal sceptic:sm, How can that claim to be
the birth Of your mind, which ia the production
OF deliberate selection, and OF which you may
never determine whethor it shall be born at al1?
And what right have you to offer to the world
wisdom which has need to be criticised and sif:ed
beforehnnd7 Ganganelli says truly tha. man
might often find at the nib OF his pen what he
go2s great way in search of,-and I mair-
tan that no man who writes from
pure love OF writing, should bs allow
cd to hold pen, If he require
to travel for it's illustrations much beyond
its nib I should Ike to know whero originality
is to be found it it be not in mau.s first
thoughts, or truth, save in tho spontaneous tes-
timony Of his faculties for discerning it:"
There ia force in these suggestions; no doubt
there arc persons with intellectual idiosyncrasies
for whom this is the best advica that could be
given. Some writer's cannot correct They
exhaust their a1dor in the first creative act, and
every addition is O weakness. There are others,
again, who By long practice acquire at last
facility By which they can dash of sentences and
chapters with marvellous ease and rapidity. Sir
Walter Scott Was writer OF this class. He
never knew what it ia to bite the aai1s for T.
thought or an expression, nor did he ever waste
8 moment with the file. Ho Wrote il q whirl-
wind OF inspiration, and Was SO hurried along,
that his brain resembled high-pressu:e engine,
the steam Of which is perpetually up, every
time lie entered his study nnf2 lifted
a pen. Gifted with a prodigious EeEnor7,-
memory that held everything with & vise-like
grasp-a vivid imagination, E fuout pen, and q
epirit that:ourted difficulties instead Of quailnS
before them; he needed only an incident or =
tradition 10 start with in my Of his novels; and
when he had laid down " the keel OF story" it
grew under his hands like ship under tho hands
cs thousand carpenters. The second and third
volumes CT Wdrerty he dashed of in three eeeEs,
and half dozen weeks suticed to produce the
whols Of Gay 1faanerin9. 'I have often been
amused" he says, "with the critics distinguish
ing some passages particularly labored, when
tho pen passed over the whole as fast IS it could
move, and tho eye mover again saw them, except
in proof" 4 nondrous talent this; ret it must
be admitted that Scott was an incorrect writer
scotticisms and awkward pecu1iarities of
phrase abound in his writings, and his poetry
is often as slovonly as lis prose. He wrote with
wonderful concentration OF mind but this
taxed his brain foarfuly, and at last destroyed it,
Byron wrote with equal rapidity. Ho had
volcanic brain, and threw OFT The Corsair in ten
daya, and The Bride Of 41ydos in four days
While his poems we're printed he added to and
corrected them, but mover recast them. IT told
you before, he writes, that can never recast
anything. I am like the tiger. II miss the
first spring, 60 grumbling back to my jungle
again but il do it, it is crushing" It was his
custom to write out Ills first idcas Is they came,
and continue till the afla.us was over, when.
finding his blood cooling in reaction, he would
set himself critically to work, and retrench, and
pare, and modify as literally as he had written
When writ-ag his Don Juan in Italy, he
used to sit up far into tho night,
with his brandy and water, his later
substitute for the glorious Hippocrene Of his
first eforta-an write away till The cock-ahout
of light summoned him to bed. TIE next day
WAS usually spent in cutting down the produce
ton Of the night to one-ha]f the humber OF STAN
zas, polishing, and otherwise improving the
work. Byzon's writing, though swift, VAS not
easy; 1t was hard and harassing, and, aided by
brandy, it bowed him, gray and CHASTITY" into
the grave at tho early age OF 81. sgd
noy Smith was another. rapid writer. Writing a.
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