The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-11-08
DIFFICULTIES or WRITERS.

tGeo. Newell Loreioy. in Baldwin, s Monthly. l
 Alexander Hamilton, on a certain oc- cAsion, remarked to an intimate friend !: @reople are all accustomed to speak of me as man of genius. Nov, call 1t if you will, genius; it is, in truth. only the ability to do vel what comes before me to perfosm.s And the correctness et HamiltDns definition of the term is fully sustained by the example of 90 many eminent intellects whom the world takes pleasure in referring to as .men of genius." The great P.ato, whose rhoaehts seemed to come 90 easy, is said so have toiled over his manuscripts, working vith Sow and tedious elaboration. The opening sentence of :. The Republic on the autAos's tables was kund to be written in some thirseen different yer sionx When death called him fiom his wvrk the great philosopher was engaged at his desk combing and curling and weaving and unveaving his writines aiter . variesy sf fashionS.n
 Coming to the gifed Addison, whose dictioo is full of such grace and simpli- city. % much % as to create envy, yes admiration, tn the mind of every writer who has Aourished since his day, we ind that the author wrote with the most pain ful deliberation- It is narrated that the press was stopped again and again, aflex . whole edition of the Steckakor had been thrown oG, in or CT that its author might make a slight change in . sen- tence. At the time he occupied the position of under secretary it b-came necessary for him to info9m Prince George of Hanover of the demise of Queen Anne, and to make known to his royal highness that the throne of En- Es1nd vas vacant. But the fastidious secretary was h such . dilemma with respect to the chsice of expression in which to convey the information, it was of writing the prince would have to be delegated to . very humble clerk, who affexward boaseed of doing what his superior-the great Addison-found so impossible to peiform.
 The historian Gibbon, in speaking of the manner in which he wrote his De cline ed Fall of the Roman Empire" said: aMany experiments were made before could hit the middle tone be- tween dull tone and rhetorical decla- mafion. Three times did compose the first chapter, and twice the secood and tkira, be1ore l vas tolerably satisfied with their effect Lamb to.led most iabofiousiy over his essays- These papers. which long ago became as classics in the English language, which are replete with the most delicate fancies, were composed with the most exacting nicety. Yet the author is regarded the world over as possessed of genius of high order. La Rochefoucauld was oc- cupied for the space of fifteen years in preparing for publication his little work called "Msxim," rewriting many of them more than thirty times.
 The celebrated French critic, Sainte- Beuve, vas accustomed to devote six days to the preparation of single one of his weekly articles. A large portion of his time vas passed in the retirement of his chamber, to which, on such occa- sions, no individual-with the one ex- ception of his favorite servant-was al- lowed to enter under any circumstances whatever. Here he wrote those critical papers which carried captive the heart of France and filled with wonder the culti- vated mind everywhere. It took Baffon fifty years to write his Studies of Ma ture." After the first draft vas made, he would rewrite it some eighteen times be- fore he deemed it ready to go to the printer. His manuscript was peculiar i; he used large-sized leter-paper, on which he ruled 6ve distinct columns. In the hrst column he jotted down his first thoughts; in the second he enlarged upon and pruned his thoughts, and 90 on to the fiffh column he would labor in which column her as last wrote down the result of all his toll And yet it is told of him. that after all this excessive labor of mind he would rewTite . sentence 10 the extent of tventy-eight times, on one occasion spending fourteen hours in dis covering the proper word with which to finish . sentence.
 In the early career of Bu!wer he found that seventeen lines in a single day was all he was able to write- As he became experienced, however, in authorship he acquired such facility that he was easily able to write several pages every day Still, with all his genius as . novelist, Buiwer was never reckoned as a ready writer. The poet Rogers once toiled for two weeks in the preparation of a note to his Italy," and the note was made up of only very few lines at that AL bany Fonblanque, editor Of the oaoe famous E.ramfsey, wrote in such a labored manner that the very best he was able to do was to write two (some- times three) editorials each week, and these were always carefully revised, and to such a degree that several of them were rewritten . dozen times each.
 The great Baizac, after he had made plan of . novel, and had, aftez the most laborious research, gathered together the materials which he was to embody in it, would lock himself in his private apart ment, shut out all the light of day. and then, by the aid ef his ssudy lamp. he would toil day and night oveE the work before him. His sezvants, moving Q well his peculiar hahits, voald sasend to his every want feschisg him the neces- xary food and dTink with which to sus-