Our
author wrote with great facility and rapidity when the inspiration was on
him, and produced an astonishing amount of manuscript in a short period;
but he often waited and fretted through barren weeks and months for the
movement of his fitful genius. His mind was teeming constantly with new
projects, and nothing could exceed his industry when once he had taken a
work in hand; but he never acquired the exact methodical habits which
enable some literary men to calculate their power and quantity of
production as accurately as that of a cotton mill.
The political changes in France during the period of Irving's long
sojourn in Paris do not seem to have taken much of his attention. In a
letter dated October 5, 1826, he says: "We have had much bustle in Paris
of late, between the death of one king and the succession of another.
I have become a little callous to public sights, but have,
notwithstanding, been to see the funeral of the late king, and the
entrance into Paris of the present one. Charles X. begins his reign in a
very conciliating manner, and is really popular. The Bourbons have
gained great accession of power within a few years."
The succession of Charles X. was also observed by another foreigner,
who was making agreeable personal notes at that time in Paris, but who is
not referred to by Irving, who, for some unexplained reason, failed to
meet the genial Scotsman at breakfast.
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