St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-07-14
FOR YOUNG WRITER..
Advice That Should Not Be Sighted q
Aspiring Journalists.

| AOFlce IN3C ShOuld NOT BE sighted pN
| Aspiring Journalists.
1t is almost supertiuous to say that
in the profession of literature the
first requisite is ability to see. to fee
and to think, and a great part of this
ability is education. Without educa-
ton no one can expect to become q
writer, and the more education the bet
ter, provided it be of the right sort
There are two objects to be attained
| by education. The first is knowledge
and the second is Accuracy. Accuracy
is the power of distinguishing the
truth and of expressing truth as it is.
1t makes little difference what are
the peculiar branches of study that are
pursued in the process of education,
provided that the pursuit is such as to
train and fortify the power CT distin-
gushing the truth and the faculty of
stating it accurately. But the more
extensive and varied the studies of
youth, the richer will be the stores of
information, and the more numerous
the points of contact with the infinite
ly varied world of men and things
in after life. No one ever learned any
branch of knowledge which was wholly
useless, and no one ever cultivated any
faculty that did not bring its reward.
In the pursuits of literature and the
profession of writer these maxilns
have truth of their own.
Reading, omniverous and universal,
is OF the greatest utility; but thinking
must always go with it. Food without
digestion is useless.
The best school of writing is news
paper office, with intelligence at the
head. No other college is possible
where the discipline of rhetoric, of
taste and of knowledge is SO effectually
applied.
The first rule of good writing is to
use always the simplest and plainest
words. State the fact or express the
point or principle which you desire to
convey SO that every reader will un-
derstand it exactly as you intend it to
be understood. Have only one idea in
mind at time, and be sure that you
have expressed it clearly and intelli-
gently before you go to another.
Above all avoid affectation, and the
worst affectation of all is the affecta-
ton of wit. The highest intellectual
gift Is the power to know the truth.
Next to this is judgment; next wit,
and the greatest OF all intellectual
qualities is imagination. The writer |
who possesses Imagination nay be-
come immortal.
But the possession Of these glorious |
endowments is granted to but few, and |
where they are not conferred by |
nature, the effort to attain them is
vain, and the result tedious. Yet t
Every one can possess the faculty Of
of truth and OF accuracy,
Zach and all Of them priceless treas
Tres, Indispensable to a successful
writer.
Moreover, the Intellectual and artis-
lie qualities Of writing are not all.
he moral quality is quite as impor-
ant, perhaps more SO. First, you must
elieve in something. Principle, con-
lotion, primary truths must live at
he bottom of your mind, or you can
OF make them live in the minds Of !
theirs. He who believes nothing, who
as no IDEAS, to whom the future offers
9 hope, and no prospect of more gen.
rous destiny for mankind, whose
onntry is not as dear to him as his
Wn heaG, can never be more than
adding and mechanical writer, and
1e grhatest success he may attain will
ithek in his grasp. &c. a. Dana, IN
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