Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1876-02-28
WHAT 1T ooSrS To WRITE WELL

Excellence Is not matured in a day.
and the eoSt Of 1t Is an old story, The
beginning Of PlatO's Republic" it is
said. vas found in his tablets written
over and over in = variety Of ways. Ad-
disoa. we are told. wore cut the patience
Of his printer frequently. when nearly
whole Impression Of .SpeesVfor was
worked ef. be would stop the press 70
insert new proposition. Lambs most
sportive essays were the results Of most
intense brain labor: be used to spend
week 1t time in celebrating : single
humorous letter 70 friend. TennysOn
Is repOrse3 to have written Come into
-sAs -G2raen. Maud more than 6fty
n,aes over before It pleased him; and
"LOeksley Hall. the first draught Of
which vas written in two days. he spent
the better part Of six weeks, for eight
hours day, in altering and polishing.
Dickens. when be intended TO write
Christmas story. shut himself up for six
weeks. lived the life Of a hermit and
cane out looking as haggari as 3 mur-
derer, BalEAe. after lie had thought
cut thoroughly Que Of his philosophical
rOm2nceS. and amassed his materials in
most laborious manner. retired to his
study. and from that time until his book
had gOne 70 press. society saw him no
more When he appeared again among
his friends. he locked, said his publish
er, in the popular phrase. ike his own
ghost. The manuscript was afterward
altered and copied, when II passed into
the hands Of the printer. from whose
slips the book was re&ritten for the
third time Again it went into the
hands Of the printer-twO. three, and
sometimes four separate proofs being re-
quirei before the authors leave could
Be got to send the perpetually rewritten
hoax to press At last. and 50 have done
with it He was literally the terror of
al printers and editors. Moore thought
1t quick work if he wrote seventy lines
Of s'Lslls Rookh" in aweek. kinglake's
"E0then. We are told, was rewritten
F FIVE OF six times. and was kept in the
authors writing desk almost as long as
WorisEOrth kept the White Doe Of
Rylstone." " and kept. like that, to be
taken ont for REVIEW and correction al
INST every day Bufsn's Studies Of
Nature cast him fifty years Of labor,
and he reoOpied It eighteen times before
he sent 1t 20 the printer. He eompos-
I'd in singular manner. writing on
large-sizei paper. in which. as in . led
ger, i've distinct columns we're ruled. In
the first column be Erote down the first
thoughts; in the second. he corrected,
enlarged and pruned it: and 50 on. TIL
he had reached the fifth column, within
which he finally wrote the result of bis
labor But even after this, he would
reoompsse a sentence twenty times, and
once devoted fourteen hours to finding
the proper word with which to round Of
period john Foster often spent hour:
On : single sentence. Ten years elapsed
between the first sketch Of Goldsmith
"TraEeler" and Its e0mpletion. L:
ROchefoueauld spent fifteen years in pre-
paring his little beck Of maxims. alter
ing some q them. Segrais says. Dearll
thirty tines We al know how Sheri
dan polished his Eit and finished hi
jokes. the same thing being found Of
different bits Of paper. differently ex
pressed Rogers showed Crabb Robinson
nOte TO his Italy" which. be said
took him two weeks % write. II consist
q very feE lines. z. Russell