The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-01-07
,aa.,G !, q. Gcniuss mil sglI and Labor. b,Sr.'

of So, ,59T, ,5S7HGs 'etisTsN' 90 gas o. ,
4 yrs ~. 80. ~ - ......-. l--s-l31g
| li qIEsIsfl od.f snIg = y ,Iay1roL cd =
t. esd Genius and Labor a,.. a-ss {
Gehitis has been defined MANY times as
| indiistfy,of bcapaoity for hard and pro-
| trAeted .labor.s hescOTrectness- Of, this
definition is sustained by the example of
a largeshumber OF, eminent authors whom
the world had by COMMON consent re
garded as men of genius, AT the end OF
| the list Stands Plato, whose flowing lines,
| tliat glide as from q swift-running pen,
we're really the product oS slowland tedi-,
Gus elaboration. FIereHis AN oanecdOte
that the opening sentence of The Re-
| public ? was found on the authors tab
| lets written Ia -thirteen- different versions,
When finally summoned by death to
cease from his lalefs the philosopher was
sitting at his desk, as Dionysius says,
"Icombing, and curling, and weaving
and unweaving his writings, after vari-
ETY. of fashions. Plato was eighty-one
years of age when called /" to Join the
great majority beyond" 5 7-fsd .afl1s
Addison, whose graceful, unaffected
styIe has excited the envy and admira-
tionof cultivated readers, composed with
painful deliberation. The press was fire.
qlIently stopped after a whole edition
the Spectator had been struck off, in
order that he,might change a proposition
in one of his sentences. While he held
the position of under-secretary it fell to
linn to communicate to Prince George of
Hanover intelligence of the death of
Queen Anne and the vacancy of the
throne. The fastidious author was so
puzzled to make his choice of expressions
in. which to convey the news that finally
the taslclOf writing the prince was given
to a clerk, who boasted of having done
what Addison found impossible. -
Lamb expended immense labor upon
his humorous essays-the delicate, dainty
flncies being fashioned with the most
critical nicely. 1t is is said that a play
full letter to a friend often cost the work
of week. 1t is related of Tennyson
that he wrote the song, Come Into the
Garden, Maud" fifteen times over before
it-suited him; and that he spent eight
hours day. for nearly six weeks together,
altering and polishing " LOcksley Hall"
The first draft of the poem was produced
in two days, but the exquisite perfection
of the finished work was the result of
this enormous drudgery. Moore accom-
plished but seventy lines of Lalla
writing was most felicitOus. Kinglake
wrote ~ Eothen" five or six times over
before it was given into the hands of
the publisher Button was fifty years
completing his ''Studies of Nature"
copied the entire work eighteen times ere
it was finally dispatched to the printer.
% He composed in a singular manner,
writing on large-sized paper, in which, as
i'm a ledger. five distinct columns were
ruled. In the first column he wrote down
the first thoughts, in the second he cor
rect d, enlarged and pruned it, and 80 ON,
until he had reached the fifth column,
within which he finally wrote the result
of his1abor. But, even after this, he
would recompose a sentence twenty times
and once devoted fourteen hours to find
ing the proper word with which to round
off a sentence"
La Rochefocauld spent fifteen years in
preparing his little book of "Maxims,"
altering some of them nearly thirty
times. John Foster often pondered
hours Over-the~ construction, of single
sentence; and Rogers worked for fort
night over note to his Italy" that
embraced very few lines. When Balzac
had completed the plan of one of his
novels, and bylaboriOus research, gained
all the materials he wished to put into
il, it was his custom to shut himself up
in the privacy of his darkened rooms,
and by artificial light work day and night
at the business of composition. His
faithful servants attended upon him,
SUPPLYING his wants and saving him all
thought with regard to his physical needs.
When at last Balzac emerged from his
seclusion, with his romance completed,
his aspect was that of a dead man. But,
the toll over, his manuscript was not
then ended. It'was altered and amended
while nthe printers hands until printer
and publisher were reduced to despair.
Gibbon says of the manner in which
he labored over the decline and Fall OF
the Roman Empire:" Many expert
ments were made before could hit the
middle path between a full tone and
rhetorical defamation three times did !
compose the first chapter, and twice the
second and third, before | was tOlerably
satisfied with their effect" When Bul-
wer began his career as "a novelist, 10 u
sud that seventeen lines day was
all he could at first accomplish. by
practice he gradually acquired facility,
until he was at last able to write several
pages daily Albany FOublanque,. the
editor of the Examiner, of whom Leigh
Hunt once remarked that he was the sue
cessor "of the Swifts and Addisons
themselves -profuse Of wit even beyond
them, and superior in political knowledge"
wrote very slowly. The utmost he
was ever able to produce was two or
three editorials week, and these were
many times revised twas not a singu
lar occurrence for him to rewrite an ed
itorial ten times. ..... ....
Sainte- -Beuve, the brilliant French
critic, regularly gave about four toilsome
days to each of his weekly articles. A
portion Of his time was spent in the Sc
clusion of his apartments, to which, dur
ing that interval, no person save his
servant was. admitted upon any pretext.
= Chicago Tribune.