Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1888-12-28
HOW AUTHORS LEARN.
Seeming spontaneity often the Resuit
of Un emitting Toll.


trained themselves 10 perfection in their
art. The other day contemporary took
the world into his confidence. and gave
vs. curious history of The apprentice
ship he served rs n man of letters. The
account Of Mr.. Louis Stevenson Is doubly
interesting from the fact that it Is spe.
cially in style, as distinct from matter
that he has won the praise OF critics. The
wonderful range o his vocabulary ani
his singular felicity in the choice OF
words arrested attention at the very out.
set of his literary career. In his case,
therefore, the method he followed in at
tanning this perfection has "A special inter
est. FROM -boyh0od, he tells us, It was
his habit 10 carry about with him u note
book and pencil. and on every possible
occasion TO set himself to write "A descrip-
ton of the objects around him. Such
exclusive attention to mere eXpression--
for the subject, he tells us, was entirely
indifferent TO him-must. it is evident
Lring with il its own drawbacks. The
critics, rs might have been expected. have
not been slow 10 ind in The work OF Mr.
Stevenson distinct evidence of this pecu.
liar sefdiscipline. They have all along
seen, tEcv assert, that his capital de ect
as writer is that his expression
much ouruns his thinking; and they
point TO his carly train NJ rs the evident
cause of the disproDortion.
1t is curious. however. that somewhat
similar discipline was pursued 10y the most
exquisite of American prose writers,
Nathaniel Hawthorne Hawthorne, rs is
felt even by those who find little interest
in his stories, is unapproachable in the
art of saying the subtlest things in the
simplest and most graceful way. His art
in this respects so consumuIate that il can
be best described in Dogberry's words. as
coming by nature. Yet so far is this from
being the case. that all through his life
Hawthorne had that habit which Mr.
Stevenson praCticed in youth. Whenever
circumstances would permit, he made a
point of deliberately noting all the expert
encs of each day. AT home, for ex-
ample, he set himself to describe the
minute changes of nature in his daily
walk His American note book was
filled with trivial details. which can have
interested him on y rs atTording scope for
practice in writing.
The method of acquiring good style
practi, ed last Ccnturv-hy Adam Smith,
among others was assiduous tran llton
from great foreign writers From this
practice it was supposed that two good
results must follow. In tran,laing n
sen ence we have a definite 'hought before
Us. for which we must find an exact
equivalent in our own speech. Hence. il
was supposed that the assiduous practice
of translation must necessarily teach that
prime quality in all good wr.tiDg-pre-
Cisiop.
Readers Of Benjamin Franklin's auto.
biography will remember how diligently
he strove TO acquire ..13d English STYLE
10 h Il Ia IN
which many rca, VIZ ,ers have followed.
The metho WIS 20 re a over pas are
from some approved author, AMI then in
his own words strive t. give he : me
s,ns,. Bv II com lHr son of his own com
position with ia, org i he WINS taught
by that most elective OF all form of n
Struction--tlt contrast bc,wC n good
AMI a bad mo q ! is easy to see. N
decd. TIA ail these m lhOi, CARR Il 10 OK.
cess must rcSD't IN Tue loss of that sp)n-
tanedy AMI iud viduality which should
mark every man $ writing not les, tam
his spec IN m demc9uor. When tho lglt
and experience do not keep pace with
power OF expression we may have hg !.
llancY indeed, bat ne.cr mat hiyacS
grace or mower which br,o4g, onlv 10
language coming straight from tie hcirt
There is still another d.scip inc. To TIA
piose writer's nave Htir.Dltcl much ol
their SIX II in the use OF language rns
is the pract &c OF vcrsc-making in vu, h.
Undoubtedly. OF Il modes o. iitcrlr.
training this is the one most likely % "a
to the best results
y curious notion once prevailed that il
was impossible n the nature OF things TO
be at once great poet and grea, uro.e
writer. Ia view OF the history or iiiera.
ture, ii is strange how this idea should
have arisen. For magniicence of prose
style no English writer has urnass ID
Milton. Edmund Burke took Dryde as
his model in tie qualities OF strength and
precision. For gIaCe and simplicity, the
poets Gray, Cowrer, and Goldsmith hold
the first place in literature Sainte. Leuve.
the greatest of French critics. is con.
spicuous example Of the value Of such a
discipline. In his you'll he mislook he
true bent of hi, genius, and cultivated
poetry. lie aitcrNard discovered his
mistake; but he was fully aware that he
could not have chosen better mode of
preparing him eli for the work he after.
ward did.
The moral OF all this is that Dogberrv
remark, true enough, so far as it goes,
must undoubtedly be supplemented by
the maxim OF Pope The s'anza of the
poet, the prosewriler'S paragraphs, where
every word seems 10 find its place as by
some inevitable law of nature is in real
ity tue consummae result of an appren-
ticeship the most stringent and exacting
in the world. al length" eXclaimS
Goethe. al length, after forty years. l
have learned to write German. 1t sur.
prisCs us to learn how hard even the mo (
original and spontaneous Of poets have
toiled at their art. Burns is supposed to
have owed less TO prcmcditation th al.
most any other poet, yet we know that he
was acquainted with all tic great English
poets. and that he read them in such
way that no academic training could have
more successfully st all his faculties TO
work. Heine has the reputation of being
the most spontaneous of lyrical poets; vet
II was rcpOr cd but the other day that one
or his song, which had s ruck every one
rs being as unforc,d as Il birds MARBLE,
was written and rewritten some half.
dozen time', the poets blurred manu-.
script revealing the mental struggle that
had gone TO lis production 1t may be an
l.. q sts