Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1876-02-24
WHAT IT CosTs TO WRITE WELL.

" Hal II SoS1s ~ WI BITE W ELL
Excellence is not matured in a dav,
and the cost of it is an old story. The
beginning Of Plato's Republic" it is
said, was found in bis tablets written
over and over in a variety of ways. Ad-
olson, We are told, wore out the pa
thence of his printer, frequently when
nearly n whole impression Of Specta-
tor was worked off, be would stop the
press To insert new proposition
Lambs most sportlve essays were the
results Of most intense brain labor: he
used to spend week at tine in elab-
Grating a single humorous letter to a
friend. Tennyson is reported to have
written 'Come into the Garden Maud"
more than fifty times over before it
pleased him; and "Locksley Hall" the
first draught of which was written in
two days, be spent the better par. of
six weeks, for eight hours a day, in al
tering and polishing. Dickens, when
he intended to write Christmas sorry.
shut himself up for ak weeks, lived
the life of a hermit, and ca me out look
ing as haggard as a murderer. Bal
zac, after he had thought out thorough
ly one of his philosophical romances.
and amassed his materials in a most
laborl"us manner, retired to his study.
and from that time until his book had
gone to press, society saw him no more
When he appeared again among his
friends, he looked, said his publisher,
in the popular phrase, like his own
ghost. The manuscript was afterward
altered aud copied, when it passed into
the hands Of the printer. from whose
slips the book was rewritten for the
third time. Again it went into hands
OF the prlnter-two, three and some
times four separate proofs being requir-
ed before the authors leave could be
got to send the perretuallv rewritten
book t. press at last, and SO have done
with il. He was literally the terror Of
all lprintersand editors Moore thought
II quick work if be wrote seventy lines
Of "Lalln Rookh" in a week. King
lakes "Eothen." We are told, was re-
written five or six times. and was kept
i'll the authors writing-desk almost as
long as Wordsworth kept the white
Doe Of Rylst"nc," and kept. like that
To be- taken out for review and cor
rection almost every dav. Buttons $
Studies Of Nature" cost him ff-
tv years Of labor. and he recopied il
eighteen times before he sent it TO the
printer. "He composed in singular
manner, writing on large-sized paper.
in which, as in ledger. five distinct
columns were ruled. In the first col
umn be wrote down the first thoughts;
III the second. he corrected. enlarged.
and pruned it; and SO on, until he had
reached the fifth column. within which
he finally wrote the result Of his labor
But even after this. he would recon-
pose sentence twenty times and once de-
voted fourteen hours to finding the prop
er word with which To round off PEE
riod." John Foster often spent hours
on a single sentence. Ten wears elapsed
between the fist sketch Of Goljsmith's
Traveller" and its completion. la
Rochefoucauld spent fifteen years in
preparing his little book Of maxims.
altering some of them, Segrais saws,
nearly thirty times. We all know how
Sheridan polished his wit and finished
his jokes, the same things being found
on different hts of PAPER. differently
expressed. Rogers showed Crabb Rob
inson a note to his Italy" which, be
said, took him two weeks to write. 1t
consists o: a very few lines.-A. p.
RHss,u