The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-01-10
HABITS OF FRENCH AUTHORS.
tESaiss Spectator l

OuS Ot tue uaoSN ASAontS0tuk imSkAnCGs ot what may be achieved by regular sys- sematic labor is afforded by the example of Littre, the author of the celebrated dictionary which bears hts name. The work itself, for which be must have been, 70 to speak. especially educated, occ upied thirteen years and two months. and the copy" without the supplement, counted 4iS 656 pages. The rules for the regula. tion ot his life were SO planned as to give the least possible time to "the current re. qairemenss of exisseace.s By sacrificing every sort of supeiHuity. he coaua.ed to have a town-house and a country house h the latter, at Menii.le- Roi, he was in . quasi solitude, and could dispose of his hours as he liked,
 "l rose at s o'clock" he wrote, "vesy late you will say for SO busy man. Waitl While my bedroom, which was also my study, was being put 10 rights, [ vent down stairs, taking with me some work. It was in this way that, amanx other things, wrote the preface to my dictionary. had learnt from Chan cellor d'Aguesseau d not to neglect seem- ingly useless moments His uupunctuai wife often made him wait for dinner. One day he gave her A book sith the words: Here is work Of before dinners Al 9 o'clock returned to my room, and corrected proofs until luncheon-time. At o'clock l was again at my desk, and there until } l wrought for the Journal d<s SaVaats, which had elected me ia 1855. and for which was anxious to pro- vide my regular contributions. From ] to worked at the dictionary. A 6 we had dinner, which was always ready, for my wife did not resemble Madame de Ague sseau. An hour laterl was again at the dictionary. The first stage took me to midnight, when all the household went to bed. The second took me to 1, o'clock, when, as a rule, my daily task was done. Ii not, l went on, and more than once, when the days were long, have put out my lamp and continued my work by the light of the rising sun. But } clock was generally the hour at which l laid down my pen, and put everything 10 order, no. for the morrow, for the mor- row was already come, ba, fos my mex, days work. My bed almost touched my desk. and in a moment l was there. Habit and regularity had overcome all tendency to excitement Of the brain; slept as soundl, as a man of leisure, and rose st o'clock. th~wakening hour of many idlers. In the city was less regu- lar. There were comings and goings and unforeseen interruptions. But ln the evening became my own master {; my nights belonged to me, as al Meuii-le- Roi, and employed them exactly in the same way"
 No, a few literary men will envy Lit tres facility for sleep, insomnia being the great trouble of wielders of the pen 1; but it should be remembered that his work, besides being regular. made no calls on his invention or imagination. No poet or novelist could labor at his vocation sixteen or seventeen hours a day without impairing his power of sleep and incurring grave danger to his health.
 Scribe was another glutton for work. He rose every morning at 5, and did not quit his desk until mid.day but though he resumed his pen at a later hour, he varied his work by interviews with actors, visits to the theatre, and watching re- hearsals. In his case, al least, severe lit- erary labor did not prove incompatible with length of life. He reached three score and ten, and in the forty years of his literary career produced 345 pieces, comprising 897 acts wrote more than a hundred thousand verses, and gained, 1t is said, nearly three million francs. Thiers and Dufaure also did great things by dint of method and hard labor but in all these instances, method--which simply means the efficient utilization of time-was more than half the battle. A desultory writer may do good work, but he can never be a great producer.
 A writer who yields to none of his con- temporaries either in the quantity or the quality of his work, albeit Dr. Riart makes no mention of him, is Elisee Reclus. He is at present engaged on his great Geographic Universelle,' which has oc- cupied him eight years, and will proba- ply occupy him as many more. He pro- duces a number every week, volume every year, and has never yet missed be- ing up to time. He begins his daily task at 7 in the morning and. save a few short intervals for meals and exercise, keeps hard at work until in the evening. He is a very moderate eater, takes little ami nal food and no wine, and to his abste- mious habits he probably owes his ex- ccllent health and capacity of sleep. for he is man of slight frame, and by no means robust His powers of assimila- ton and acquisition are extraordinary. He seems to forget nothing, and is always ready to undertake anything, whether it be learning Russian in order the better to write his article on Russia, or making a journey to Syria in search of materials for his chapter on Asia Minor.
 It would thus appear that the most valuable quality man of ofIetiers can pos sess is method, and as most men of iet- tess (excluding from the category daily journalists) can dispose of their time as they think fit, iris their own fault if they are not methodicai. The great thing is to get a good start for, as Dr. R,art righifully observes, "morning work is both the easiest and most profitable, and depending as i, does upon ourselves,