When a man writes for reputation, he has a very different task before him;
for no one will gain high and permanent rank as an author, unless his
ideas bear some tolerable proportion to his words. He who aims to write
_well_, will avoid diffuseness. _Multum in parvo_ will be his first
consideration; and if he achieves that, he will have secured one of the
prime requisites of literary fame.
In the earlier days of our republic, a discussion was held by several of
the prominent statesmen of the period, on the expediency of extending the
right of suffrage to others than freeholders. Some of the debaters made
long speeches; others made short ones. At length, Mr. JAY was
called on for his views of the matter. His brief response was: "Gentlemen,
in my opinion, _those who own the country ought to rule it."_ If that
distinguished patriot had been writing for the bleeding Kansas Quarterly,
at the rate of a dollar a page, he would probably have expanded this
remark. He might have written thus:
"Every man is born free and independent; or, if he is not, he ought to be.
_E pluribus unum._ He is, moreover, the natural proprietor of the soil;
for the soil, without him, is nothing worth.
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