Part 14 (1/2)

FONTENELLE'S INSENSIBILITY

Fontenelle, who lived till within one h or cry, and even boasted of his insensibility One day, a certain _bon-vivant_ Abbe caus dressed with butter; Fontenelle, also, had a great _gout_ for the vegetable, but preferred it dressed with oil

Fontenelle said, that, for such a friend, there was no sacrifice he would not us which he had ordered for himself, and that half, moreover, should be dressed with butter While they were conversing together, the poor Abbe fell down in a fit of apoplexy; upon which Fontenelle instantly scaerly bawled out to his cook, ”The whole with oil! the whole with oil, as at first!”

PAINS AND TOILS OF AUTHORshi+P

The craft of authorshi+p is by no ined by the thousands who aspire to its practice Ale or of fancy, have been the product of much intellectual exertion and study; or, as it is better expressed by the poet--

”the well-ripened fruits of wise decay”

Pope published nothing until it had been a year or two before him, and even then his printer's proofs were very full of alterations; and, on one occasion, Dodsley, his publisher, thought it better to have the whole recomposed than make the necessary corrections Goldsood work, and was seven years in beating out the pure gold of the _Deserted Village_ Huland_ on a sofa, but he went quietly on correcting every edition till his death Robertson used to write out his sentences on s the them to his satisfaction, he entered them in a book, which, in its turn, underwent considerable revision Burke had all his principal works printed two or three ti theable correctors, labouring every line; and so was our prolix andthe first and latest editions of the _Seasons_, there will be found scarcely a page which does not bear evidence of his taste and industry Johnson thinks the poeimen, but they were much improved in fancy and delicacy; the episode of Musidora, ”the sole scene,” as Campbell terms it, was almost entirely rewritten Johnson and Gibbon were the least laborious in arranging their _copy_ for the press Gibbon sent the first and only MS of his stupendous work (the _Decline and Fall_) to his printer; and Johnson's high-sounding sentences ritten almost without an effort

Both, however, lived andof little else--one in the heart of busy London, which he dearly loved, and the other in his silent retreat at Lausanne

Dryden wrote hurriedly, to provide for the day; but his _Absaloery of the _Hind and Panther_, must have been fostered with parental care St Pierre copied his _Paul and Virginia_ nine tiht render it the more perfect Rousseau was a very coxcomb in these matters: the ailt-edged card-paper, and having folded, addressed, and sealed them, he opened and read theled enthusias and anxiously for bright thoughts, as the MS of his _School for Scandal_, in its various stages, proves Burns composed in the open air, the sunnier the better; but he laboured hard, and with al[10]

Lord Byron was a rapid co-knife On returning one of his proof sheets frole word, for which he wished to substitute another, and requested Mr Murray to refer it to Mr Gifford, then editor of the _Quarterly Review_ Sir Walter Scott evinced his love of literary labour by undertaking the revision of the whole of the _Waverley_ Novels--a goodly freightage of some fifty or sixty volue, and Moore, and the occasional variations in their different editions,

Southey was, indeed, unwearied after his kind--a true author of the old school The bright thoughts of Campbell, which sparkle like polished lances, were manufactured with almost equal care; he was the Pope of our conteham corrected but little, yet his imitations of the elder lyrics are perfect centos of Scottish feeling and poesy The loving, laborious lingering of Tennyson over his poems, and the frequent alterations--not in every case improvements--that appear in successive editions of his works, are familiar to all his admirers

[10] ”I have seen,” says a Correspondent of the _Inverness Courier_, ”a copy of the second edition of Burns's 'Poems,' with the blanks filled up, and nu: one instance, not theand characteristic will suffice After describing the gas,' their historian refers to their sitting down in coarse and rustic terh patrons, and he altered it to the following:--

'Till tired at last, and doucer grown, Upon a knowe they sat them down'

Still this did not please his fancy; he tried again, and hit it off in the simple, perfect forrown, Upon a knowe they sat theenerally, decided improvements; but in one instance he failed lamentably The noble peroration of Lochiel is familiar to most readers:--

”Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low, With his back to the field and his feet to the foe; And leaving in battle no blot on his name, Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fa_, when the poet collected and reprinted his minor pieces, this lofty sentiment was thus stultified:--

”Shall victor exult in the battle's acclaim, Or look to yon heaven froe, however, isely restored in the subsequent editions