CHAPTEE XVII. 



HOME LIFE. 



Advantages and Disadvantages of Authorship Trials of a Successful Author 

 Methodical and Unmethodical Writers Devotion to Work Power of Work 

 The Daily Programme Natural History Queries Autograph Collectors 

 Example of Correspondence Revision of Proof Sheets Changes in Later 

 Life Love of Reading Wonderful Memory Persistent Labours Note- 

 Books and Extract-BooksMarginal Annotations Character of Notes 

 The Author in his Study Order in Disorder Live Stock in the Study 

 Missing Tools, &c. A Well- furnished Writing Table Amateur Carpentry, 

 Bell-hanging, &c. The " Oiled Feather "Sealing-wax Varnish Amateur 

 Book-binding Threatenings of " Writer's Cramp " Use of a Type- Writer 

 Illegibility of MS. The Type- Writer in the Train Indifference to Public 

 Opinion Sensitiveness to Interruption Sufferings from Dyspepsia- 

 General Health Use of the Turkish Bath. 



AUTHORSHIP, although a sufficiently laborious profession 

 to those who depend upon the pen for their daily bread, 

 is commonly supposed to have this great counter- 

 balancing advantage, that it can be carried on quietly at 

 home, without any necessity for a daily journey to and 

 from an office, perhaps many miles away. This is no 

 doubt true enough ; but it may yet be questioned 

 whether the ordinary man of business is not more 

 favoured than the author after all. For, although he 

 may be obliged to leave home early in the morning, 

 although he may not return until the shades of evening 

 have fallen, and although his work throughout the day 

 may be wearisome and exacting, yet, when he leaves- 



