EDITOR'S TABLE. 



367 



obliged to read over each one ; and he was 

 not assured of the sequence until the mass 

 had been examined by another. 



Some writers fasten their best thoughts 

 when penning with the greatest haste. 

 Their manuscript, like that of mauy careful 

 authors, contains either neglected or erased 

 vfords terminations that appear perfectly 

 inexcusable. Think of a scholar tracing 

 with a rush fixed, and then adding tion, or 

 satisfying himself with hermeticly ; and yet, 

 in overlooking thousands of pages of copy 

 prepared by authors who would have a de- 

 lirium if the slightest typographical error 

 appeared in the " revise," I have stricken 

 out countless terminations and intermediate 

 syllables and letters not specimens of bad 

 spelling, so called that looked like gram- 

 matical refugees, so far were they from their 

 proper place. 



Again, in writing, the pen does appar- 

 ently just what the organs of speech do 

 when certain words are to be produced. 

 In the most delightful stage of composition, 

 when the brain and the pen jog on com- 

 fortably together, it will often be found, on 

 looking back a few lines, that a stranger 

 has turned up who the author is positive 

 has no right in such company. There it is, 

 winking at a clever trick that the subject 

 cannot explain. 



Here the writer possesses the memory 

 of words and the memory of how to use 

 words. But, while the mind is being 

 tickled with the successful unfolding of a 

 pet theory, or the attractive draping of an 

 important idea, the pen surreptitiously lets 

 in an unblushing beggar. 



In writing, the brain will order the pen 

 to inscribe a certain word, and, with volu- 

 minous authors, that nimble servant will 

 frequently transfix an unsuspected one be- 

 fore the outrage is detected. , 



Now, as in the case above, the author 

 possesses the knowledge of the exact word 

 that is desired ; but an incorrect one ap- 

 pears. Neither the memory is lost, nor the 

 ability of utilizing it. Think of the results, 

 when the proof-reader strides through the 

 idea, and buries a still more uncongenial 

 word in the prettiest passage. 



Recognized carelessness causes omission 

 of words, curtailment of words, and often- 

 times incorrect spelling. It is only Ihe 

 carelessness that is not recognized that 

 takes a fancy to giving a word more letters 

 than it craves, changing favorite words at 

 birth, and placing before the eye a stone 

 when bread is wanted. 



G. J. Hagar. 



New Toek, August^ 1875. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



TEE CASE OF GUIBORD. 



ALL over the world, in all times of 

 which we know any thing, and 

 among tribes of men of every grade, the 

 most intense and powerful feelings of 

 human nature have gathered around the 

 dead, the graves where they are buried, 

 and the rites of sepulture. Besides the 

 ties of affection that are sundered by 

 death, and which are often so deep and 

 strong that their rapture leaves life a 

 desolation, the imagination is also 

 brought into exalted activity, and reli- 

 gious hopes, fears, and anxieties, and 

 the terrors of superstition regarding a 

 future life, combine to heighten the sol- 

 emn interest of the occasion. As men 



are ruled through their feelings, and as 

 the more powerful the feelings the more 

 complete is their subjection to those 

 who can skillfully work upon them, it 

 is not to be supposed that these potent 

 emotions concerning the dead would 

 remain unutilized by parties ambitious 

 of influence over the consciences and 

 conduct of men. It is an important 

 part of the polity of the Roman Cath- 

 olic Church to use the powerful senti- 

 ments that are associated with death, 

 the dead body, and the grave in wLich 

 it rests, for the promotion of the objects 

 of ecclesiastical ambition. That corpo- 

 ration assumes the prerogative of con- 

 secrating or cursing the ground to be 



