The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-12-12
The Labors of Genius.

The great Plato, whose thoughts
seemed to come so easy, is said to have
ioiled over his manuscripts, working
with slow and tedious elaboration. The
opening sentence Of "The Republic" on
the authors tablets was found to be
written in some thirteen different YER
sions. When death called him from
his work the great philosopher was en-.
gagged at his desk ''combing and curl
ing and weaving and %unweaving his
writings after a variety of fashions"
The celebrated French critic, Sainte-
Beuve, was accustomed to devote six
days to the preparation of a single one
Of his weekly articles. A large portion
of his time was passed in the retirement
of his chamber, to which, on such oc-
casions, no individual-with the excep-
ton of his favorite servant-was al
lowed to enter under any circumstances
whatever. Here he wrote those critical
papers which carried the captive heart
Of France, and filed with wonder the
cultivated mind everywhere.
The historian Gibbon, in speaking of
the manner in which he wrote his ODE
cline and Fall Of the Roman Empire"
said: "Many experiments were made
before I could hit the middle tone be-
tween a dull tone and q rhetorical de-
clamation. Three times did | compose
the first chapter, and twice the
second and third, before 1 was
tolerably satisfied with their effect. +"
Lamb toiled most laboriously over his
essays. These papers, which long ago
became rs classics in the English Ian
guage, which are replete with the most
delicate fancies, were composed with the
most e1acting nicely. Yet their author is
regarded the world over as possessed of
genius of a high order. La Rochefou-
cauld was occupied for the space of if
teen years in preparing for publication
his little work called "Maxims," re-
writing many of them more than thirty
Gimes.
The great Balzac, after he had made
a plan of a novel, and had, after the
most laborious research, gathered to-
gether the materials which he was to
embody in it, would lock himself in his
private apartment, shut out all the
light of day, and then, by the aid of his
study lamp, he would toll day and
night over the work before him.
His servants, knowing so we'll his pecu-
liar habits, would attend to his every
want, bringing him his necessary food
and drink with which to sustain his
physical needs, and thus he would
toll on and on, until finally, with
his task completed, as he thought,
he would come fourth from his retire.
ment looking more dead than alive.
But invariably his taskwould not be alto
gether satisfactory to him, after all, for
again he would seek the seclusion of
his chamber to rearrange and make
more perfect that which he had before
supposed wholly complete. Then, too,
when in the hands OF the printer, he
would be as apt as not to alter in one
way and another, the manuscript, until
both printer and publisher were on the
verge of despair. Kinglake's beautiful
"Eothen" was rewritten half a dozen
times before it was given to the pub
Usher for consideration. Tennyson's
song, "Come Into the Garden, Maud"
was rewritten some fifty times before it
gave complete satisfaction to the au-
thor.
Coming to the gifted Addison. whose
diction is full Of such grace and SIM
piicity, so much so as to create envy,
yet admiration, in the mind of every
u-1.Jfnr who ho, q,,,,.,I,1 ,~oo -, l,.
we find that the great author wrote
with the mast painful elaboration. It
is narrated thai the press was stopped
again and again. after a whole edition
of the Spectator had been thrown off,
in order that it's author might make q
slight change in a sentence.
Tom Moore, with all his wonderful
brilliancy, considered it doing very well
if he wrote fifty lines of his 'Lalla
Rookh" in a week. Hawthorne was
slow in composing. Sometimes he
could write only what would amount to
half a dozen pages a week, often only q
few lines in the same space Of time,
and, alas, he would frequently go to
his chamber and take his pen, only to
find himself wholly unable to perform
any literary work. The author of
pleasures of Hope" was slow of
thought, and consequently his mode of
composition was toilsome in the highest
degree. He wrote extremely cautious
ly, weighing and shaping the effect of
each particular line before he permitted
it to stand.
Bret Harte, whose creations read as
if they had come from his brain without
a flaw or hindrance, showing brilliancy
of thought, with the grace of the artist,
is still another writer who passes days
and weeks On a short story or poem be-
fore he is ready to deliver it into the
hands of the printer. So, too, with
Bryant. Though in reality the sum
total of his poetry might be included in
q small volume, so few are his lyrics,
we cannot fail to be impressed with the
truth of the statement when we are
told that even these few gems of verse
cost our late Wordsworth hard toll to
bring into being, and endow with the
splendor of immortality.-Boston Tray
eller.
Marrying For Money.
From the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette.
Society is getting into a strange
state, said q very observant middle
aged lady the other day. "1t seems as