Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1878-12-31

brilliant effect and wonders. Did it but
discern, too, through what struggle
| and self-denial and concentration OF
thought the effect was produced, it
would not, perhaps, so readily yield its
homage. Our greatest thinkers and
writers are generally the most modest,
and simply because they know best
what their splendid efforts have cost
them; that while to the world they are
wonderful magicians, to themselves
they are nothing but the veriest
''slaves Of the lamp"
AS a general thing, therefore, those
who have accomplished most in the
world of thought, Of science, or Of let
ters are nothing but prodigious workers
men whose only genius consists in
the humble, plodding faculty Of per-
petually pegging away at one thing, of
never letting go subject when they
have once taken a firm grip at it; of
concentrating, thought or work on one
line of inquiry of effort, and, like Grant,
fighting it out on that line, if it takes
all summer" Scarce anything worth
the name has been produced in this
world that does not ''smell Of the
lamp" ''There is nothing great with
out laborn and perseverance conquers
all things.' These are the mainsprings
of great and successful human achieve
ments.
We not long since had opportunity
of seeing page Of the manuscript of
powerful English novelist. 1t was
verltable literary marvel. AS pub
lished, the thoughts fairly glowed and
the words burned. Every sentence was
strong, complete and polished. The
whole sounded like harmonious
strain Of melody. The periods seemed
to have leaped like Minerva, full-pano-
piled, from the very head of Jove. And
yet the blurred and blotted manu-
script page-the constant erasures, ad-
ditions and interlineations - plainly
showed that this "genius, whom the
world admired, was nothing but halt
ing, limping, shackled human intel
lect after all; that his brilliant talents
were ''of the earth earthy;" that all his
best effects were the productions Of his
art artificial and mechanical.
The manuscripts of Charles Dickens,
now on exhibition in England, show
the same bungling, hesitating, pains
taking care. The almost illegible pages
of writing reveal the man, while the
printed pages, with their finished,
musical periods, and their glowing
words, so instinct with life and feeling
that if, to borrow simile, they were
cut, they would almost bleed, would
seem to reveal the God. 1t is said that
George Eliot will sometimes spend
whole day cudgeling her brains for a
page or so Of matter and the next day
will tear it all up and commence anew.
Read her sonorous lucubration in inn
maculate print, and nothing could be
finer. See them as first struck out and
placed on the marred and disfgured
page, almost as difficult to decipher. as
an Egyptian hieroglyphic, and you see
the grovelings Of struggling and labor
ious art-it is Hyperion to Satyr."
There is, then, what might be styled
the Mechanism of Genius. Much OF
what is called inspiration is nothing
but hard and very imperfect work,
growing better and better only by the
most minute revision and alteration,
and only approaching perfection by in
finite brooding and constant tinker
ings. Many will remember Edgar A.
Poe's detailed, and, we may add, graf
ing account Of how ''The Raven' was
composed. 1t is like looking behind
the scenes at a theatre when some NOV
ing spectacle or burst of pathOs is melt
ing the outside audience into tears.
We see nothing but the ropes and pull
leys, the daubs and patches, the paint
and rouge, the tawdry tinsel and the
Slave, exquisitely proportioned and
rougn block of marble, fined and
chiselled down by hired workmen.
The real work was the daily and con-
stant modelling in clay, and the ''Ge-
MUS" who presided was Power, with
mud up to his elbows, scraping away
here and daubing Shiny clay there;
gradually, and, through infinite fail
ures and disappointments, working his
model up to his conceptions.
The nearest most authors get to in
spiration, and to what has been called
the "divine affiatus," is attaining a
certain glow at specially-favored hours,
Mu6u buO ldllCJ UOCOl1lSS n6dGoU duQ 6ll-
Unused, and when the brain becomes
excited and stimulated. Then there
does come certain outside power, an
unusual flow Of ideas and fancies, and
uncommon facility Of happy execution.
At such auspicious times, the writer
will dash off his best thoughts and ex-
pressions, and cannot brook Interrupt
tion. Any interference will for that
time only spoil, by interrupting, his
work. The most wonderful book in
modern times for revealing the inside
life of successful and almost wor-
shipped genius, !" is Forster's life of
Dickens. When one reads through
what trials, failures and fluctuations
the immortal creation of Dickens
reached their printed perfection, he
will have, if not so much admiration
for the ''genius,'' at least more love
for and sympathy with the man.
Sometimes he would sit for whole
day idly triiing with his pen and vainly
essaying to coax or hammer out of his
unwilling brain something that MIGHT