Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-05-31
CALLING TIE ANGELS IN.

WI, hen n the burden OF daytime droil is oer.
Wen sit and muse, while the stars come out,
OF A. bi me tp atrn tS Sat at the open door
10 watch for the angels passing by.
We see them afar at high noontide,
Yet never have hidden them turn aside,
them to haoW e eeeT We
To drink of our wine. and break our bread.
We promised our hearts. that when the stress
When the Wes that we WITH hndeps
Wen loosen our thonghts to such repose
And then-wem call the angels in.
The day that we dreamed Of comes at length,
And broken in spirit and shorn of strength,
We drop, indeed, at the door of rest,
and Ar wait and watch as the day wanes on;-
But the angels we meant to call are gone!
lMGrgdret j. Preston an Batdu1ins MenthIH
Wilkfe Collins on Novel Writing.
Wilhe Collins has been talking to Olive Lo-
gan about novel writing, and she transmits his
views to the Spirit Of the Times:
81 do not believe says WIlkie Collins "that
Bulwer kept rightly to this absolute rule such
may have been his theory; doubt If 1t was his
out, but it is impossible for an author of any
Imagination to proceed far In the composition
OF story without seeing various ways In which
to turn the current; naturally he will choose
ain writing The Woman in White then,
you had not the whole plot thought out befor
"No. had the resemblance between tine
two women fixed in my mind; had thoroughly
conceived the character OF Fosco from the first,
except the detail OF his being fat man. That
was completed. Then reading 1T over, and
wondering how could make him still more
different from the villain Of the traditional
type, and having often noticed that fat people
are not, as rule, any more virtuous or good.
tempered than thin ones, l simply made him
tat: 1t was quite an after thought."
,, Have you no advice to give to young authors
eyes" says the master, with an expression
OF deepest thought pervading bis Intellectual
face, 81 have several rules from which never
deviate myself, and deviation from which |
consider very dangerous, even In the case OF the
most practiced author. For instance, in writing
novel, you should always begin at the begin
"FGrtffith Gaunt'-'The Princess Of Thule,'"I
murmured.
"True, nevertheless, to the extent Of having
which must afterward be written up to at great
length, both those novels were highly inartfstic.
A novelreader is very much like the spectator
grees; his interest gradually enlisted, until
finally it becomes absorbed in the story to such
an an, extent that he finds it difficult to lay the
Then you do not approve of beginning a
"Oh, yes 1 do, If it be good one, and one
which belongs naturally at the beginning of the
y
be concerning the exact conduct OF the middle
Of the story, you should know before you begin
how 1t Is going to end, and steadily working
toward that end, you should always keep the
action moving. 1t should never lag. Another
thing. When you have interested your readers
In one set Of characters, don't drop them and
begin another chapter with we must now re-
turn to- etc. The reader is disappointed at
losing the people In whose fate he had become
nterested and only by an eoTt takes up the
feel the same rebuff when he is forced to drop
these new friends with we must now go back
to- etc"
comment, assure you," was my reply.
"AnOther Characteristic deem essential to
good novel writing is to always introduce a
pOetical side In the midst OF every day practi-
calties. 1t does not do to grovel In the dirt too
much"
=. "zo o is grovelllng there with much success
"True; but the taste is ephemeral. Victor
Hugo (whOm esteem the greatest poet France
ever produced, though not the greatest novel
ist), will be read a hundred years hence, when
all the race OF Zolas is forgotten"
"Do you read Daudet?"
Eyes, little, but not much. He Is not so
dreadful as lola, but he is very bad. Both, and
all their followers, are only imitatorS OF the
worst features OF BalZac, not one line OF whose
exquisite poetry and pathoS they are capable
either lola or Daudet try to write anything as
beautiful as the death of LIE Pere Goriot, for
instance! Oh, we have had these coarse writer's
In our English fiction, and they have had their
day Of success, too. Look at Smollet and
Sterne! There Is not publisher in England
who would risk the reproduction OF their works,
for they are dead, and nothing on earth can re-
v1ve them; while edition after edition of The
Vicar OF Wakefield pOurS from the presses, and
no novel OF the day even is more widely read.