[§  6.]  The  more  successfully  to  accomplish  this,  practise  the  repeated
reading  over  of  what  you  have  last  written  before  you  write  another  sen-
tence, ^y  this  means  a  more  perfect  coherence  of  what  follows  with
what  precedes ;  a  more  coherent  and  connected  succession  of  thought  and
of  periods  will  be  expected  ;  and  by  this  means  too  the  glow  of  mental
conception,  which  the  labor  of  writing  has  cooled,  will  be  kindled  anew ;
and  will,  as  it  were,  acquire  fresh  impetus  by  taking  a  few  steps  backward ;
as  in  the  contest  of  leaping  we  frequently  remark  the  competitors  setting
out  to  run  at  an  increased  distance  from  the  point  where  they  begin  to
leap,  and  thus  precipitating  themselves  by  the  impulse  of  the  race  tow-
ards the  bound  at  which  they  aim  ;  as  in  darting  the  javelin  we  draw
back  the  arm  ;  and  in  shooting  with  the  bow  draw  back  its  string.'

"I  have  written  only  this  translation  of  Quintilian  since  Saturday.
Professional  engagements  have  hindered  me.  But  I  have  carefully  read
a  page  or  two  of  Johnson's  Dryden,  and  a  scene  or  two  of  Antony  and
Cleopatra  every  moi-ning  —  marking  any  felicity  or  available  peculi-
arity of  phrase  —  have  launched  Ulysses  from  the  isle  of  Calypso,  and
brought  him  in  sight  of  Phoeacia.  Kept  along  in  Tacitus,  and  am  read-
ing a  pretty  paper  in  the  "  Memoirs "  on  the  old  men  of  Homer.     I


yO  MEMOIR   OF  RUFUS   CHOATE.  [Chap.  III.
