fied; with the additional mortification of having spent a longer
time, and of being unable to give their poor preparation the interest of
a forcible manner, which the very distress of an extemporaneous effort
would have imparted.

But on the other hand, when his mind is bright and clear, and his animal
spirits lively, he will speak much better after merely a suitable
premeditation, than he can possibly write. There will be more point and
vigor and animation, than he could ever throw into writing. "Every man,"
says Bishop Burnet, "may thus rise far above what he could ever have
attained in any other way." We see proof of this in conversation. When
engaged in unrestrained and animated conversation with familiar friends,
who is not conscious of having struck out brighter thoughts and happier
sayings, than he ever put upon paper in the deliberate composition of
the closet? It is a common remark concerning many men, that they pray
much better than they preach. The reason is, that their sermons are made
leisurely and sluggishly, without excitement; but in their public
devotions they are strongly engaged, and the mind acts with more
concentration and vivacity. The same thing has been observed in the art
of music. "There have been organists, whose abilities in unstudied
effusions on their instruments have almost amounted to inspiration, such
as Sebastian Bach, Handel, Marchand, Couperin, Kelway, Stanley, Worgan,
and Keeble; several of whom played better music extempore, than they
could write with meditation."[6]

[6] Rees' Cyclopaedia.

It is upon no different principle that we explain, what all scholars
have experienced, that they write best when they write rapidly, from a
full and excited mind. One of Pope's precepts is, "to write with fury
and correct with phlegm." The author of Waverley tells us, "that the
works and passages in which he has succeeded, have uniformly been
written with the greatest rapidity." Fenelon's Telemachus is said to
have been composed in this way, and sent to the press with one single
erasure in the manuscript. The celebrated Rockingham Memorial at the
commencement of the late war, is said to have been the hasty composition
of a single evening. And it will be found true, I believe, of many of
the best sermon writers, that they revolve the subject till their minds
are filled and warmed, and then put their discourse upon paper at a
single sitting. Now what is all this but _extemporaneous writing_?