The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-04-03
STUDY OF LITERATURE.
[Boston Cnnrier.1

can estimate the difficulty, and the time required to fit him for beginning work When. on the other hand, he gives him self to literature he has seldom any clear idea of what he is expected to do and he labors under the added disad- vantage of finding that people in general expect him at once and without any specia4 preparation to produce good lit- erary5 work There are few proverbs more mischievious than the statement that poets are born and not made. This is ae true as that doctor is born and not made, and no more SO. Natural ap- titude and mental gifts are as essential i'll one case as another bat the popular acceptation which makes these stub stitute for education and special train ing k as dangerous as 1t is absurd Everybody knows the saying of Sidney Smith to the effect that one of the three things every body thinks he can do is to edit newspaper and 1t may as well be understood at the outset that literature in any of it's branches is a profession to be patiently, faithfully and persistently studied, like any other.
 Few persons ever announced a deter imitation to follow literature as a pro- fession without sooner or later being met by the question, propounded in all seri- ousness, and with a puzzled air which showed how genuine was the ques- tioner's ignorance: But how do you study literature?' There is wide spread impression that the whole train ing of a literary man consists in nothing but the procuring of pen, ink and pa per; and there are unfortunately but too many sincere but unwise mortals who embark upon what they suppose to be a literary career with no other pre- paration. It is therefore not quite un- necessary to say that there are certain other preliminaries which had better not be neglected if one hopes to follow successfully the life of professional writer.
 In the first place the student of liter ature must read. Theoretically he ought to read every thing that has been written, but as this would occupy some thousands of years and is after all but a preliminary step, there k some skipping to be allowed here 4 man must make a selection; and, despite whatever is said to the contrary he must make it himself All the study at home ," and Chautauqua courses may be re- garded as but snare and a delusion. Of course people without libraries and at distance from intellectual centers may advantageously take advice in re gard to what books to procure, although even the reading of any fairly respect able handbook of literature ought to furnish all the guidance necessary to start one. But the young man who if turned into decent library then can not select his own mental food may be set down as so absolutely lacking in the bookman s instincts that he had better not attempt to follow literature and may be left outside our present inquiry.
 Though the student of literature can not read everything, he may read much and he may become acquainted with much more. 1t might be fanciful to in- sist upon the theory which the present revival of theosophy is bringing for the hundredth time tO the surface that all inanimate as we'll as animate objects are surrounded hy an individual influence that affects whoever comes near them, but there is something in the atmosphere of library which plays part in the making of literary man which can be taken by nothing else A literary man must be blanched in a library like celery in its bank if he is to possess any crisp ness when it comes to the eating.
 The next important point is, that the student shall be able to put into words whatever he thinks, and to put it into words exactly. It is true that he will, if he has any genuine inspiration, have many fancies that break through Ian guage and escape;' but until he can say exactly what he means, he is not master of the simplest technicality of his trade. He must learn to think with his pen in his hand until the mechanical act of setting thought down in black and white shall have become normal part of the formation of an idea; and he must never allow thought to evade his endeavors to enclose it within the bars of language He must unweariedly write and write, and phrase and phrase, as pianist must practice his exercises or prima donna her scales. Here, as elsewhere, diligence and patience are the Sine qua non and there is no more limit to the gymnastics which give to writer the flexibility he needs than there is to those necessary to give dancer heXibility and surety of limb.
 But all skill in expression is nothing if one have nothing to say; and to have something to say it is essential to think and feel Thinking is an art and may be cultivated feeling is gift and may be developed. Either alone is worth little; together they are of measureless value. To neglect either is to lose ones labor, Communion with great minds in literatWe will do much for this develop ment, but contact with men and with man is essential to its perfection The professional writer must know man, and he can acquire this knowledge only by the study of nature and of his fellows at first hand. The student must be no recluse; he must mingle with the world and with society. and while not for an instant allowing the world or society to absorb him or divert him from his pur- pose, he must pursue both as diligently as if they were the sole end of his care
 All this is included in the study of ! ! II. 4 r