st written down. The
more they are elaborated, the more fresh and spontaneous they become."

Leonardo da Vinci would walk across Milan to change a single tint or
the slightest detail in his famous picture of the Last Supper. "Every
line was then written twice over by Pope," said his publisher Dodsley,
of manuscript brought to be copied. Gibbon wrote his memoir nine
times, and the first chapters of his history eighteen times. Of one of
his works Montesquieu said to a friend: "You will read it in a few
hours, but I assure you it has cost me so much labor that it has
whitened my hair." He had made it his study by day and his dream by
night, the alpha and omega of his aims and objects. "He who does not
write as well as he can on every occasion," said George Ripley, "will
soon form the habit of not writing well on any occasion."

An accomplished entomologist thought he would perfect his knowledge by
a few lessons under Professor Agassiz. The latter handed him a dead
fish and told him to use his eyes. Two hours later he examined his new
pupil, but soon remarked, "You haven't really looked at the fish yet.
You'll have to try again." After a second examination he shook his
head, saying, "You do not show that you can use your eyes." This
roused the pupil to earnest effort, and he became so interested in
things he had never noticed before that he did not see Agassiz when he
came for the third examination. "That will do," said the great
scientist. "I now see that you can use your eyes."

Reynolds said he could go on retouching a picture forever.

The captain of a Nantucket whaler told the man at the wheel to steer by
the North Star, but was awakened towards morning by a request for
another star to steer by, as they had "sailed by the other."

Stephen Girard was precision itself. He did not allow those in his
employ to deviate in the slightest degree from his iron-clad orders.
He believed that no great success is possible without the most rigid
accuracy in everything. He did not vary from a promise in the
slightest degree. People knew that his word was not "pretty good," but
_absolutely_ good. He left nothing to chance. Every detail of
business was calculated and planned to a nicety. He was as exact and
precise even in the smallest trifles as Napoleon; yet his brother
merchants attributed his superior success to good luck.

In 1805 Napoleon broke up the great camp he had formed on the shores of
the English C