ing, the most perfect finish is recognized at a
glance, but the mind only can perceive it in the book. It was an odd
notion of the authorities to exhibit literature in the international
exhibitions; but if they could have made people see the difference
between sound and unsound workmanship in the literary craft, they would
have rendered a great service to the higher intellectual discipline. Sir
Arthur Helps might have served as an example to English writers, because
he has certain qualities in which we are grievously deficient. He can
say a thing in the words that are most fit and necessary, and then leave
it. Sainte-Beuve would have been another admirable example of
self-discipline, especially to Frenchmen, who would do well to imitate
him in his horror of the _a peu pres_. He never began to write about
anything until he had cleared the ground well before him. He never spoke
about any character or doctrine that he had not bottomed (to use Locke's
word) as far as he was able. He had an extraordinary aptitude for
collecting exactly the sort of material that he needed, for arranging
and classifying material, for perceiving its mutual relations. Very few
Frenchmen have had Sainte-Beuve's intense repugnance to insufficiency
of information and inaccuracy of language. Few indeed are the French
journalists of whom it might be said, as it may be truly said of
Sainte-Beuve, that he never wrote even an article for a newspaper
without having subjected his mind to a special training for that
particular article. The preparations for one of his _Lundis_ were the
serious occupation of several laborious days; and before beginning the
actual composition, his mind had been disciplined into a state of the
most complete readiness, like the fingers of a musician who has been
practising a piece before he executes it.

The object of intellectual discipline is the establishment of a strong
central authority in the mind by which all its powers are regulated and
directed as the military forces of a nation are directed by the
strategist who arranges the operations of a war. The presence of this
strong central authority is made manifest in the unity and proportion of
the results; when this authority is absent (it is frequently entirely
absent from the minds of undisciplined persons, especially of the female
sex), you have a chaos of complete confusion; when the authority without
being absent is not strong enough to regulate the lively activity of t