The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-08-06
HOW AUTHORS COMPOSE.

The d1nefe0C6 ID ttuo motuSuo aooPsS
by different authors is as great as the
difference ins their choice of subjects.
There Is q story quoted in illustration OF
tha different characteristics of three great
.nationalties which equally illustrates the
different paths which may be followed IN
any intellectual enterprise.
An Englishman, a sFrenchman and
Germsi competing for a prize offered
for the best essay on the natural history
of the came, adopted his own. method OF
research !: on the subject. The German :
s layinc in % stock of tobacco, retired TO
his stndy in order to evolve from the
depth sof his philosophic consciousness
the primitive notion Of 9 camel. The
3 :Fench1an resorted to the nearest lie
@hrary. and ransacked its contents with q
view to- collect salls that other men had
said :upon the subject. The Englishman.
packed his carpet bag and set sail for the
East, that he might study the habits s, OF
the animal in its original hannts. The
blending of these three methods is the
perfection &C study 4 but the Frenchman's
method Is not unknown even among
Enulishmen. Nor is it to be absolutely
condemned. The man who reads hum
dred books upon q subject, in order To-
write one. confers q real benefit upon so,
ciety. provided he does his work well.
Bnt some very capital work has been
written without the necessity either OF:
research or of original lnYestlgatlon:I
Trollope drew his famous Archdeacons
He never lived in any cathedral city
except London; Archdescon Grantiy.
. WAS child of "moral consci ciousness@
alone: he knew nothing, except lndirect.
: IN. about Bishops and Deans. In tact,
The Warden was conceived not primarily
J as clerical novel, but as novel which
should work out a dramatic situation;
! that Of an honest, amiable man who was
the holder, BY no fault of his own, Of an.
endowment which was in itself an abuse.
and on whose devoted head should fall
the thunders Of those who attacked the
abuse. q ~
5Bryan Waller Proctor had never seen.
the ocean when he wrote The Sea; Meth.
er Schiller nor Rossini had seen Switzer.
I land when they wrote their William
Tells. George Cruiksh hankes, sketches of
the Bouleyards and Palais Royal, elabo..
rated from sketches furnished to him,
were wonderfully spirited and true,
although he had never been across the
Channel Indeed, he never got beyond 9
French seaport in the course of his long
life, "a day at Boulogue comprehended
all his continental experiences.
Harrison Ainsworth, the Lancashire
nnvalist when he wrote RookWoOd and
Jack Shepherd relied. absolutely on hls
power Of reading up and assimilation,
and never had the slightest intercourse
with thieves in his life. sIt is said that
when he wrote the really admirably ride
of Turpin to York, he only went at q
great pace over the paper with road
map and description of the country in
front of him. Itwas onlyewhen he heard
everybody say how truly the country was
described, and how faithfully he had
observed distances and localities, that he
actually drove over the ground for the
frat time. and declared that it was more
ike his account than he could have i'm
agined.
aa G man Monh do Wellto carry pen
Gil IN his pocket, and write down the
thoughtsr rofs thes moment Those that
come unsought for ara generally the most
valuable, and should be. secured, because
they seldom return" This was the ad-
vice of Lord Bacon, whose example has
been followed by many eminent men.
For instance, it is said OF Hobbs that,
when he composed his Leyiathan, ne
walked much. and mused as he walked,
and that he had in the head of bis, cane
3 Den and ink, horn, and a note book in
his pocket. As soon Us. a thought darted
into his mind he, entered it in. his book.
Miss Martineau has recorded that Barry
Coruwali's favorite method was INDUCED
I when alone ina crowd, and best il the
streets of London. He also had habit
of.running into shop to write down his
verses. Tom Moore's custom was to
compose as he walked. He had table
in his garden, on which he wrote down
his thoughts. When the weather was
bad he paced up and down his small
study. II, is. extremely desirable that
thoughts should be written as they rise
in the mind, because if they are not
recorded at tina. time they may never
return. 1ttacn ~ uuen ILL PoA'eoSo
to the ideas which come during the night
or in the morning" said CASTOR .Plante,
the celebrated engineer, athat l have
always, Of the head Of my bed,. paper
and pencil suspended by string, by the
help of which I write every morning the
ideas I have been able to conceive, par
ticularly on subjects Of scientific research.
Iwrite these notes in obscurity, and de
cipher and develop them in the morning,
pen in hand" The philosopher Emer-
son took similar pains to catch fleeting
thought, for, whenever he had q happy
idea he wrote it down, and when Mrs.
Emerson, startled in the night BY some
unusual sound, cried, "What is the mat
ter? Are you, Z" the philosopher
softly replied, mo, my dear; only an
Thackeay confessed that the title OF
his novel, Vanity Fair, came to him in
the middle of the night, and that he
Jumped ont of bed and ran three times
round the room, shouting the words.
Whether in town or country, Landor
reflected and composed habitually out
walking, and, therefore, preferred at all
times to walk alone. So did Buckle.