THE GOSPEL OF INFINITE PAINS
in point. He is said to have written with astonishing rapidity—The Corsair in ten days, The Bride of Abydos in four days; while it was printing he added and corrected, but without recasting. To quote his own words:
I told you before that I can never recast anything. I am like the tiger. If I miss the first spring, I go grumbling back to my jungle again; but if I do it, it is crushing.
Now, the ability to get one's thoughts upon paper with great rapidity is in itself an admirable gift. There is a freshness, a spontaneity, and oftentimes a crude strength in the first rough draft which must inevitably be partly sacrificed in the process of final polishing. There is a great deal of truth in Thoreau's advice:
Write while the heat is in you. When the farmer burns a hole in his yoke, he carries the iron
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