Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-04-16

er smiled upon them. lhelrb was uehu Hit
through life. They were giants in stature,
but pigmies stood upon their shoulders and
grasped the coveted prizes beyond.
Upon every great work you will find the
ingor-marks of toll Goethe was fifty-seyen
years in writing the second part Of his Faust.
Among Lord Bacon's papers his chaplain and
biographer found twelve yearly reyislons Of
his Novum Organon Pascal would spend
twenty days often, upon single Provincial
Letter, and re-wroto some of them seven
times Aud this, you remember, was in the
interests Of narrow ecclesiastical controyer-
sy; but what he wrote for the hour has be-
come the legacy of all ages and nov ranks
first among the classics of pure and perfect
style. Taine tells us that Rosscau's periods
which begat Revolution were polished for
eighteen hours in his head. Every bon nat, "
says Goethe, has cost me a mine of gold"
Humc's Dialogues on Natural Religion were
corrected for twenty-five years. Tennyson
wrote the famous song, Come into the gar
den, Maud" fifty times before it took its
present shape and Locksley Hall cost him six
weeks labor Button wrote his Epoch Of Ma
ture over eleven times, although he had
thought Of the matter for fifty years.
Classical literature, be assured, has never
fallen together in any happy go-lucky way
and men who have won fortune by the pen
have usually spent fortune, if not in money,
yet in labor, in preparing themselves for their
supreme effort More labor, it is said, was
spent upon the piles beneath the church Of
st. Isaac's in st. Petersburg to get the foun-
dation, than in all the magnificent marble
and malachite which has since been laid up
on it. Young man. said Daniel Webster
to one who had been questioning him about
his speeches, Young man, there is no such
thing as cxtemporaneous acquisition. When
Lord Dufierin was Governor General Of Can
ada, he gained great reputation by his appar
emily oH-haud speeches, and especially re
ply in Greek to the Professors OF Gill Uuiver-
sity when his degree was given, reply
which was praised in the learned circles of
Europe as q wonderful piece Of extelnp0re
scholarship. But this same Greek Grafton
took more than a week in its composition,
and his happy little speeches were written
aud rewritten for the third, fourth and fifth
times, until often not word Of the original
draft remained Doubtless il any one was
ever capable Of an eXteuporancous effort,
Lord Brougham was, yet the peroration Of
his speech in defense OF Queen Caroline was
rewritten seventeen times. Morley says of
Edmund Burke, half his eloquence is from
the thoroughness with which he gets up his
facts And yet not one of his pamphlets
left his hands without the utmost polish art
could give. His Reflections on the French
Revolution" were written and rewritten, and
finally the proof came back from his hands
so corrected that the printer had to set it all
up afresh. Morley compares his method of
composition To Titians way of painting,
''mnkng his preparations with resolute
strokes of Il heayy-laden brush, and then
turning his picture to the wall and by and by
resuming again, aud then again aud again,
re-dressing, adjusting, modelling the light
with a rub of his finger, or dabbng spot of
dark color into some corner with a touch of
his thumbs, and finally working all the
smirches, contrasts, abruptnesSes into the
glorious harmony that We know" Nothing
Etthl - easy L lhAb Atllp W.. l4oiu lANhulhl
would read a volume to write sentence, and
thought nothing of rccasting an entire chap
ter for "A more lucid arrang, ment, or recon
structing an entire paragraph for one happy
stroke or apt illustration, Hawthorne came
out of his study every day during the win
ter he was writing his Scarlet Letter, with
his brows knotted. No wonder his wife was
obliged to stop her ears when lie first read
his manuscript in her hearing And Albany
Fonblangue editor Of the London Examiner,
would frequently, in his early days, re-write
an article ten times b fore it left his hands
and this not of necessity but of choice, be
cause his own ideal Of political thought and
expression was infinitely higher than that of
the public. Some one complimented the ia
nous singer Malibran, after concert, for
reaching high Il, running up three octaves,
to which she replied well, I've worked
hard enough for it. I've been chasing it for
a month. pursued it everywhere, when l
was dressing when l was doing up my hair;
at last l found it in the toe of a shoe | was
putting on" Patti, at the close of an even
ing's performance suggested to the manager
that the troupe We're all there aud they might
have a rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet. 1T
is one o'clock in the morning he said, you
have just got through a long performance
and must be tired" Tired" says she, 81
am never tired" Macready used to practice
his most passionate parts with his arms ban
daged, aud his body held rigid, not moving
muscle of his face, that his acting might ex-
hibit reserved power, and passion be express
ed by the tones Of his voice and flash of his
eye. OF one French actor it was said that he
studied so constantly and so closely from life
that his work would make one who was the
of commonplace eminent And
so the list might be extended. Rubenstein
said, IF l neglect to practice for a single
day, notice it; if for two days, my friends
notice it, if for three days, the public no,
tce it," Audubon, the naturalist, in in
the habits of little gray bird he
had discovered in the Great Pine Swamp in
Northumberland county, Penn, built him a
pillow of moss, and lay down under tree
with a telescope for three weeks, watching
the movements of his new acquaintance, and
deeming himself fully repaid by what he
learned. Leonardo da Ninci would walk the
whole length of Milan to alter single tint
in his picture of the Last Supper And
Washington Allston, in correcting the entire
of his great picture of Belshaz-
zar's Feast, made 10000 chalk marks in cir
cles and arcs to bring the amended figures
into correct drawing. In view of instances
like these may we not believe with George
Eliot that 'some deeds seem little more than
which give vent to the passions
aud discipline of lfe." Yes,
"The songs that echo longest,
Deepest, fullest, truest, strongest,
With your lfe-blood you will write"
There are other parts of my subject, over
which | must hasten, which may be classed
among the curiosities of work and workers.