Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-03-27
DlFFIcuLJ

DIFFICULT AUTHORSHIP.
How Some of the Most Noted Listerateurs
Worked While Victims of Disease.
Heinrich Heine, the sweetest singer
Germany has ever produced, wrote his
"Romancero" under circumstances Of
great suffering. When paralyzed and
nearly blind, he wrote a woven web of
satire and pathos. in which he spared
nothing, not ever his own racked and
anguished frame. "My body" he
said, ''has gone to rack and ruin, SO
that almost nothing is left but my,
voice, and my bed reminds me of the
melodious grave Of the enchanter Mer-
lin, which is in the forest of Broce-
llande, in Brittany, beneath lofty oaks,
whose tropical branches blaze up like
green flame to the sky. All, colleague
Merlin. | envy you those trees and
their fresh waving boughs, for no green
leaf rustles here in my mattress grave
"a grave without rest, death without
the privileges of the dead, who have no
need to write either letters or books.
l have been measured for my coffin
some time ago, and my obituary writ
ten, but l die so slowly that this be-
comes a tedious affair for myself, as
well as for my friends. Patience, how
ever; there is an end to everything.
One morning you will find Che book
closed where the puppet-show of my
humor so often amused you." One
night, indeed, it was so, but not until
he had endured his s'mattress grave"
for eight long, weary years. Oncnight
ne moved into that fast and best bed,
where ''the weary are at rest"
1t has been contended that when the
disease of which the sufferer is dying
is consumption, or some disease which,
between paroxysms of pain, leaves
spaces of ease and rest, it is nothing
wonderful that good work should be
done. Some of the best of Paley's
works were written under such condi-
riQns, and some of the best of Shelley's.
Crabb Robinson said that Goethe never
had an affliction which he did not turn
into a poem. Mr.. Philip Gilbert Ham
erton has noted a very peculiar effect
which the act of composition had upon
Wordsworth. When engaged in COM
posing 1.-The White Doe of Rylstone,"
he received a wound in his foot, and
observed that the continuation of his
literary labors increased the irritation
of the wound, whereas by s%uspending
his work he could diminish it. Abso-
Lutte rest produced perfect cure. In
connection with this incident he re-
marked that poetic excitement, accom-
panied by p%rotracted labor in compost
ton, always brought en- more or less
bodily arrangement. He preserved
himself from permanently injurious
consequences by excellent habit of life.
1t is curious that times of illness,
when the eyes swim and the head
shakes, are oftentimes rich in sugges
ton. If the mind is naturally poetic,
the hours of illness are by no means
wasted. Such was the condition OF
Mr.. Green, the historian, who literally
died in harness. Few pages in literary
in which Mr.. Green tells the history Of
the making of 1.-The Conquest of En-.
gland When he had finished the
fourth volume of his "History of the
English People" There was a pause il
the advance of the lung disease which
afflicted him. Eager for fresl
work, he began to shape new
plans, but early in the spring O
1881 he fell i'll again. Gin the extremity
Of ruin and defeat he found 3 higher
fidelity and a perfect strength" Mos
men give up their work when their end
comes near, but Mr.. Green is said tc
have worked all the harder because his
days were numbered, and strove tc
maintain and diffuse as much light as
possible before the coming Of the night
sUnder the shadow of death the Con
quest of England was begun" and the
night came before it was finished" The
death of Mark Pattison was equally
sad, for in one of his last letters he
wrote: '.It is hard to feel my physical.
powers ebbing away, while my intel
%lectual powers were W mor vigor
Gus. l have gathered with infinite
pains the materials for my great work
but they will all be wasted, for I shall
not live to finish it, and 10 one else
will find the clew."
Blindness would seem an insuperablt
drawback to writing, yet Prescott, the
historian of Mexico and Peru, over
came the difficulty into which he wa
plunged by the failure of his sight
While a student in Harvard College
one of his fellow-students threw a crus
of bread at him, which struck one O
his eyes and deprived it almost who'll,
of sight. while the other was sympa
thetically affected. When writing . /;
history of Spain, his eye gave way, ant
prevented him from reading. His lite
rary enthusiasm, however, was to,
strong to be quenched even by thi
calamity. He engaged a reader, die
lated copious notes, and from thes'
notes constructed his history, making
in his mind the necessary corrections
Ha7per's Bazaar.
POWERFUL WATER.
A Mineral Spring That Ought to Be Cul