Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1885-01-08
~ r.sors Of Genius.

saamsd to come so easy, Is said to have
toiIed over his manuscripts, working
with slow and tedious elaboration. The
o-nenine sentence Of "The Repablic" on
tbe authors tablets was found to be
written in some thirteen different YER
sioss. When death called him from
his work ths great philosopher was en-
gagged at his desk "eombing and curl
ING and weaving and nnweasing bis
writings after a variety Of fashions"
The celebrated French critic, Sainte@
Beuve, was accustomed to devote SIX
DAYS TO the preparation of q single n
of his weekly articles. A large portion
Of his time was passed In the retirement
of his chamber, to which, IN such oc-
c~asions, no individual-with the excep-
ton Of his fayorite 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
khe manner in which he wrote his DE
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 / was
tolerably satisfied with their effect
Lamb toiled most laboriously over his
ESSAYS. These papers, which long ago
became as classics in the English lam
/ guage, which are replete with the most
delicate f~ancies, were composed with the
most exacting 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 fif-
teen years in preparing for publication
his little work called "Maxims," re-
writing many of them more than thirty
times.
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 il, 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 SC well 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 q dozen
times before it was given to the pub
Usher for consideration. Tennyson's
song, Come Into the Garden, Maud, I"
was rewritten some fifty times before il
gave complete satisfaction 10 the su-
thor.
Coming to the gifted Addison, whose
diction is full Of such grace and sim.
plicity, so much so as to create envy,
yet admiration, in the mind of every
writer who has fiourished since Lis day,
we find that the great author wrote
with the mast painful deliberation. 1t
is narrated that the press was stopped
again and again, after a whole edition
tf the Spectator had been thrown of,
In order that its author might make q
slight change in q sentence.
Tom Moore, with all his wonderful
br~iiliancy, considered it doing very well
if he wrote fifty lines of his 'Ialls
Rookh" in q week. Hawthorne was
slow in composing. Sometimes ha
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 10
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. Hs 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
il they had come from his brain without
q flaw or hindrance. showing brilliancy
of thought, with the grace Of the artist,
is still another writer who passes days
and weeks OF 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 sun