Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1881-09-06
W. l m. 3 m. 6 N. l VI.
EanuScriptS.

The nero handwriting OF Lord Baaconsfe!d
mas without any great exercise Of fancy be re"
gsrded as tlu:htully rtaaosing some Of tho
qualities most clearly rocogoz .bie iu his career
|. Was bold and resoutc. Il seemed to chal.
lenge attention by ccrtsio blending of dash
aud ornateuess. These qualities are mere ap.
parent in the later handwriting Of Lord Baa.
conshgid than In the manuscript of tho novels
of WHICH Mess!s Christie and ManscI hsVe to
dispose. But these pecularitie5 are not want.
log there. More Interesting and truly ilIustra.
tive OF character is another feature which wo
observed yesterday a. marking tho Dsrse
matu:ctipts. What Lord BeaoOn:6.ld wrote
ct any tine, 80 far as 1o eau udre from The
rough drafts Ut his novels seems TO havo pro.
cesded at ons impulse from the miod Of the
author. " was produced from tho first u.en-
tlon. There are comparatively few interiuea-
tious or su6stltutioDs OF words aud phrases.
Passages and sentences eppcEr to have bsen
Withdrawn now and then on some ground of
deliberate after judgment But the writer
never socms to hsYe had difficulty With his SEQ
tenc8s, TO have been embarrassed between
words, or to have boggled over his phrases.
Tlere is no trace OF literary fun biiog ABOUT his
workmanship.
Mental habits arc so various that il cannot be
said that the good writer IL shown either by the
power of producing what he has to say In its
best form at one effort, the msrnsr and the
sutstsao, beiug insepsrahly welded together. or
by the hsbit of painful aud iccassant cor-
raoio1. Tao ms1uscrps of M'l,oos earlier
writings, comp VII le he got had dis tyesight,
Is what p,ioters Gail cean copy. Thougnt
seems IN his case to have waddcd itself to
latgaago 10 one primal and iDdi5solub!e uuioa.
Tbs ionumerabls oorrec ions by whioh Pascal
gave their pertrc ion of form to his "PrcVii cal
Letters" arc well knoWn. Balazac WAS not less
laborIou7. The late George E;iot's writings.
pToGucod ty ca intensity cf mental straia and
tf1rt WHOM were physically exhaus.ing, appear
as u they had been prll oed on the paper by
single uumpeded act of will. The specimens
which MIR. Forster has given from the esrlier
| and lster novels OF Dickens exhibit dlfsrspcss
which havo their msutsl counterpDrt. The
easy, and fowing sud almost uuootted msnu-
scripts Of the nove,s of the "Pickwicx" and
"Nickloby" period sosrcsly seem to have come
from the Same haDd as the crampcd aud c!Gss!y
wriIten copy" with its erasu1ss aud luier
Ilosatlors snd suo5tl;uto0s. OF the stories of
the Mutual Friend" and Edwin Drocd'' era,
Iha etIrt ard uncertainty which sre visible in
tho later manuscripts of Dcknes arc obvious
to the reader Of the printed volume. They
BOAR witness to tho strain aad wea1iuess, org
endured and long struggled against, of which
the sudden death of the illus,rious author was
as o9oo tho melancholy issue and the proof.
These lustsnces, taken wholly st raudon, NOV
perhaps servo 10 Indicate within what limits pe-
cuieritie5 Of men:al constitution. ia,eectual
superiority or inierioIity, ara iodioased by
facility or d!tncu ~ in the wrttea expression OF
sDought.-Londop Daily Macs.