Habits of Eminent Men.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 32, 18 February 1875, Page 7

Habits of Eminent Men.

— # . ;- Saul Sir John Lubbock the other day. aft Birmingham, in an addrass to the Btudents of the Midland Institute: — "Wolf, the great scholar, is reported as having sat up most of the night reading, with his feet in a tub of cold water to keep, him awake, and one of his eyes bound up to rest, while he read with the other." For the encouragement of students, we. append some furthnr rumours of the habitsr of great thinkers which happen to have reached us. Arago waa of such drowsy disposition that, to keep him wide awake while pursuing his researches, his wife was« forced to* pull his whiskers once in every half hourj besides playing the piano with all her « might and main when she saw him nodding; It may perhaps be interesting to students of their works to hear that, when composing, Homer wore an eye glass and So--phocles a wig. ftosseau is reported to have written his " Confessions "• in red ink, but the reaaon why he did so has /never been discovered. The faet9, if not important in a scientific, point of view, at least are highly interesting as matters of biography, that Herschel wore top-boots; while sitting at "his tele/sc'ope,, and that Sir Isaac Newton, when tie went into his study, always put on a Court suit. We believe that we may state without, much fear of. • contradiction, s that Csesar wrote so bad a hand that nobody except his wife could manage to decipher it; and - if it had not been for her untiring industry in fair copying his scrawls, the world would, probably have losfchis now world-celebrated work. It is well- known that the author of the " Castle of Indolence" was an.exiremtyactive man, yet few who read _the poem, would guess from its contents that it wag* y principally written on ttie-bpckjofp, velocipede, while the poet was performing a journey for a wager from Eenzance to. Piccadilly. ..' •.. '.'l .•-•■",•; Alexander the great— not the Empror,. but the Pope— was commonly in the habit; of writing in bed, begining his'w'ork geneb»- :: ally a little after midnight- atwhich- hour he always dined. To facilitate^ the fldrc of poetical ideas, a bottle of hot gin and water, covered carefully with, flannel,, wasplaced beneath his feet, and," as if was) usually found. empty in the morning, thereseems reason to conc'ive that now and thea the poet raised jt taJWOpi . v . . .. . ; Another, celebjated Alexander-*thq-world- renowned Duma 9, while in the z anitbf of his fame, and in order to fulfil his engagements with the publishers, used frequently to write with a pen in either band one tied .to his big toe: - ' ,i ;t , i Milton often smoked a -pipe while writim^; " Paradise Regaitted, 1 ' and ; Dante"^aily burned a little brimstone in a brazier at his-., a^dej to; aid his,* inspiration while compjdiing>:

: Astray Thought .by an, Old, MaW.-9-When we- want chiliareri 'in the way : they', are always somewhere 'lelse^ and when we want them somewhere elee they are always* •fa the_way> Manjr^good kiss has beegt_ riipped in, the bud by a. torxtr-^ear-old^.. nuisance bringing a light into the room. ' v' H Writing Letters.~A pleasent. lively^- . letfer, received frbnrorie ! whbin ! Ye kind^' rjegared, gives a new impetus to a friendships which might easily languish and die urider v neglect. .To/berinteresting, letters need, riot be long. It is not neceewry that every thing be eaid.u Pith and point may make aletter full of meaning. But where the affection iaintimate, the. confidential intersj'jchapge must be fraok and free to wander- > :at random; or the letters wfllceasVto keep ; up a real acquaintanceship. The dearest ' friendff^re losfc to Jeach other u^whensletters^^ :C adn^andifew of us .^anWCfbtlose good friends, through waiiton : cafelemcßa a Jd ;n^leet| t einw theyiare not ea&Uy k- :• -f