Morris tribune., 1885-02-04
THE LABORs OF GENIUS.
Plato's Thirteen Versions of II Sentence
Tennyson's Struggle With Meter
Bret Harte and Bryant Laborious
Mritrrs.


Bret Harte and Bryant Laborious
Writers.
The great Plato, whose thoughts
seemed to come so easy, is sad to nave
toiled over his manuscripts, working
with slow and tedious elaboration. The
opening sentence OF "Ihe Republic
on the authors tablets was found to be
written in some thirteen different Ver-
sions. When death called him from
his work the great philosopher was en-
gagged at his desk ''cOmbing and cuTl-
mo and weaving and nnWeaVlng his
writings after variety OF fashions.
The celebrated French critic, Salnte-
Beuye, was accustomed to devote SIX
DAYS to the preparation of Il single one
of his weekly articles. a large portion
of his time was passed in the retirement
of his chamber, to which, on such &C.
casions. no individual-with the eXcep-
ton of his fayorite servant-Was allow
ed to enter under any circumstances
whatever. Here he wrote those critic
al papers which carried captive the
heart of France, and filled with won
der the cultivated mind everywhere.
The historian Gibbon, in speaking OF
the manner in which he wrote his DE
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
said: ''Many experiments were made
before could reach The middle tone
between a dull tone and a rhetorical
defamation. Three times did | COM
pose the first chapter, and twice the
second and third, before | Was tolera-
bly satisfied with their effect. Lamb
toiled most labOriOuSlV over his essays.
These papers, watch long ago became
as classics in the English language,
which are replete with the most delicate
fancies, were composed with the most
exactine nicely. Yet their author is
regarded the world over rs possessed OF
genius of high order. La Rochefou-
cauld was occupied for the space of tlf-
teen years in preparing Tor publication
his little work called .'MaNims, re-
writing many of them more than thirty
times.
The great Belzac, after he had made
q plan of a novel and had, after the
most laborious research, gathered to-
eether 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
servant, knowing so well his peculiar
habits, would attend to his every want,
bringing him the necessary food 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 forth from his
retirement looking more dead than
alive. But invariably his task would
not be altogether 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 pub
Usher were on the verge of despair. King
lakes beautiful "Eothen' was rewrit-
ten half dozen times before it was
given to publisher for consideration.
! Tennyson's song, Come Into the Gar
den. Maud" was rewritten some fifty
times before it gave complete satisfac-
ton to the author
| Coming to the gifted Addison, whose
diction is full OF such grace and SIM
plicity, so much as to create envy, yet
admiration, in the mind OF every writer
| who has fourishcd since his day. we
find that the great author wrote with
the most painful deIibcration. 1t is
narrated that the press was stopped
again and again, after whole edition
| Of the Spectator had been thrown off,
| In order that its author might make a
| 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 week. Hawthorne was
slow in composing. Sometimes he
could write only what amounted to
half dozen pages a week, often only
| a few lines in the same space of time,
and, alas, he would frequently 60 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 high
est degree. He wrote extremely eau
tiously, weighing and shaping the
effect of each particular line before ne
| permitted it to stand.
Bret Harte, whose creations read as
| if they had come from his brain with
out a flaw or hindrance, showing bril-
liancy of thought, with the grace OF
the artist, is still another writer who
passes days and weeks on short story
| or poem before 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 in
cluded in 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 en-
dow with the splendor of immortality.
| -ROsfo7z Trn1oLey.