David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ I sometimes got courage to edge up to strangers, and ask them to give me a maxim. Almost before I could join letters, I got some sheets of paper and folded them into a little square book, and wrote in double lines, two or three in a page, my beloved maxims. ”

“ A clergyman told me that he had reason to believe that there was no author or authoress who was free from the habit of taking some pernicious stimulant — either strong green tea, or strong coffee at night, or wine or spirits or laudanum. The amount of opium taken to relieve the wear and tear of authorship was, he said, greater than most people had any conception of, and all literary workers took secretly. ‘Why, I do not (said I) ; fresh air and cold water are my stimulants.’ ‘I believe you (he replied) ”