Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1883 — Macaulay’s Pen. [ARTICLE]

Macaulay’s Pen.

It seems uo doubt to many a reader of Macaulay’s History as if he wrote without effort, and as if the charms of his style were the gift of nature rather than the product of art, so spontaneously do they appear to flow from his pen. .It was the general opinion of his literary friends tlfat he wrote with great rapidity and made few corrections in his manuscripts. On the contrary, we are told by his nephew and biographer that he never allowed a sentence to pass until it was as good as he could make it, and would often rewrite paragraphs and whole chapters, that he might gain even a slight improvement in the arrangement or expression. After writing thus carefully he corrected again, and his manuscripts were covered with erasures. He paid equal attention to proof-sheets. He could not rest until the lines were level to a hair’s breadth, and the punctuation correct to a comma; until every paragraph concluded with a telling sentence, and every iwntence flowed like running water*