and in all
weathers, to the injury of his health; and his walks, be it observed,
were frequently what Balzac's always were--at night; so that, in the
matter of hours, he must be taken as having conformed in some important
respects to Balzac's hygiene. Now, Goethe was also an essentially
out-of-doors man by nature--not one to let his pen do his imagining for
him. He was no slave of the ink-bottle, as some are, who cannot think
without the feather of a goose in their hands, by way of a sometimes
appropriate talisman. There is a well-known passage in one of the Roman
elegies to the effect that inspiration is to be sought more directly
than within the four walls of a study, and that the rhythm of the
hexameter is not best drummed with the fingers on a wooden table; and if
it is true, as the author tells, that "youth is drunkenness without
wine," it seems to follow, according to his experience, that those two
or three bottles of wine are not altogether needless as an aid to
inspiration when youth is gone by.

Schiller could never leave off talking about his poetical projects, and
thus he discussed with Goethe all his best pieces, scene after scene. On
the other hand, it was contrary to Goethe's nature, as he told
Eckermann, to talk over his poetic plans with anybody--even with
Schiller. He carried everything about with him in silence, and usually
nothing of what he was doing was known to any one until the whole was
completed.

Sir Walter Scott was one of the most industrious of writers. He rose
early, and accomplished a good day's literary work before half the world
was out of bed. Even when he was busiest, he seldom worked as late as
noon. His romances were composed with amazing rapidity; and it is an
astonishing fact, that in less than two weeks after his bankruptcy Scott
wrote an entire volume of "Woodstock." His literary labors yielded him
$50,000 a year. Two thousand copies of "The Lady of the Lake" were sold
within a few months.

Many of the more energetic descriptions in "Marmion," and particularly
that of the battle of Flodden, were struck off, according to Mr.
Skene's account, while Scott was out with his cavalry, in the autumn of
1807. In the intervals of drilling, we are told, Scott used to delight
"in walking his powerful black steed up and down by himself upon the
Portobello sands, within the beating of the surge; and now and then you
would see him plunge in his spurs, and go off as if at the charge, with
t