LITERATURE AND ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7824, 18 December 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

LITERATURE AND ART.

Lord Smbobsb'b work." A Defenoe of the Lord Seibobkb's work, av b] . hmenb lished. This volume competei u» and brings the history up u L Thomas The newwork in Ju %x ("The Vagabond") sHd Dbeervation life m JSew L*i d , )y the "Kew Hebrides ivil 1J" P d unde r Sibils file Museum the books in which Americans excel writers of .Jl ojhjj « trie are county on the American Civil W at-ere j threu and it i. curious to notice hat the only m> Eoitnes read a poem L. Webster, of Now York. h» itiJlSi sSHs issued by the bousss £ Firmin Didot and Co.. Pans ; J. J - •J^" 1 ; Colopne ; Eepasa «nd Lo., barcelona, L°l£ Tiponrafo Edltrice, Turin: and De Maai-chapoij de Katholicke Illustrate, Ho - land AH Continental arrangements pass through the hands of Messrs. Sampson Low has been let in on Emerson'a methods of work by the Rev. D G. H«k»j in his personal reminiscences of Emerson now Spearing in the Literary- World (Boston) Mr. Raskins says :-"I asked Emerson to tell me something of his habits of stuciy and writin" . . . fle socmed interested ana gratified, and with great minuteness of detail answered my various questions. He explained to me his mode of composing. He tau. that usually after breakfast he went to walk in the woods in pursuit of a thought, very much as boys go out in summer to eaten butterflies. He" was not always successful, aDV more than the boys were. But when successful, no boy waa e»er happier with his butterfly than he with his thought. Having captured his thought, he put a pin through it and took it home and placed it in his collection. Emerson explained that he made » note of his thought, but generally only in his mind ; that he kept what he called a thought book, in which he entered such thought, having first worked it over ana clothed it in fitting garb. Sometimes ne would go aeain, in the afternoon into the woods. and"there, cr perhaps by the roadBide, find another thought, which he would treat in the same manner. But this was exceptional. Emerson was satisfied if he sue ceeded in securing one though! a day. The thoughts were entered one after another in the thought book, without regard to their connection. Whenever he wished to write an essay or a lecture, he made free use of the thought book, selecting or adapting such thoughts an seemed fitting, and stringing them together as a child strings beads on a thread. This may account for the mosaic character of much of his writing."