Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-06-24

to have touched a soul worth while.
If he writes as he feels there will be
color enough in it somewhere to at
tract attention and praise as well as
criticism. If he edits il as policy
dictates it will be so colorless that even
the critics viii not bother to mention
it. In these days, there is altogether
too much writing for critics rather
than for readers who read for in
struction and pleasure. Following we
give the thoughts of the japanese phil
osopher:
We generally profess to be thinking
when we talk or write, but, in reality,
we seldom do so. Man as rule talks
and writes as he feels, not as he thinks
When we think profoundly our mouths
are invariably closed and our pen is
arrested. A man may write or talk
the result of his thinking: but this is
no talking or writing in the ordinary
sense of the words A public speech
is reading of a composition one has
previously prepared, and the writing
Of a composition without feeling is
like the compiling of statistical tables
One CLEANS no such pleasure from either
as he does in talking without thinking
or in writing with feeling. The best
proof of this is that the more one thinks
on any theme or the more deeply one
studies any subject, the more difficult
1t grows for one either TO talk about it
or write about it. Man talks most glib
~ on a subject he least knows, but di-
reetly he comes to the topic he thor
oughly knows, he shuts up his mouth
and feigns ignorance An autobiogra-
ply ought to be the most interesting of
all reading, but as rule 1t is the dri-
est of all books, for the writer of an
autobiography holds back what he
knows most and feels most and writes
only of what lie thinks or pretends to
think about his life,
A certain great thinker inspired by
the beauties of a lofty mountain, PEN
ned an elaborate composition, dwelling
ON the grandeur and the sublimity of
the towering peak. After while he
read over his composition as he sat at
the window which commanded a full
upon the beautiful peak and read his
lines alternately he was more and more
inspired with the greatness of the real
mountain and conscious of the despica-
bleness of his literary portrait. Now
he would alter this phrase. then he
would cancel that clause, now he
would strike out this idea as vulgar
platitude, then he would deplete that
sentence as Illogical. When the thor
ough pruning was done, behold, his
elaborate composition had been reduc-
ed to one single sentence: The noun
tain is a green, beautiful thing" The
great thinker then saioi;o himself with
satisfaction, This embodies the es-
senee of my thoughts on the noun
tain.'
II we think too much on life we are
liable to come to the conclusion mat
"ail is vanity and there is naught that
is new under the sun" So / believe
that writer's and readers ought to think
a little but feel much if they wish to
CLEAN pleasure from reading, writing or
conversation. But there are some
strange persons in the world who seem
to have very little capacity for feeling.
1t is probably these strange persons
whom Jerome had in his mind when he
After describing how this most supe-
rior person" sneered at the best known
authors and publications, how he never
read the living authors whom he crit
leised contemptuously, how he formed
his own opinion about the Almighty
God and objected to heaven, Jerome
goes on to speak of him as follows:
Art irritated and science bored him.
He despised his own family and disik-
ed everybody else. For exercise he
yawned, and his conversation was
mainly confined to an occasional shrug.
Nobody liked him, but everybody re-
spected him. One felt grateful to him
for his condescension in living at all"
This most superior man. | think, is
the victim of overthinking or wrong
thinking. We agree in saying that
man acts according to his feelings, not
according TO his thinking; and why
should not writer's write as their feel
ings dictate? tx
If Shakespeare had written his plays
according to the cold logic of knoWl-
edge his writings would not have -four
ished till today If we confront the
stage with the austere eyes of a think
ing critic, where would be the charm
Of the stage illusions? The knowledge
CT one country is not necessarily the
knowledge of another. the knowledge