4–10 July 1831

1 83 1. President Monroe died on the fourth of July, — a respectable man, I believe.

No man can write well who thinks there is any choice of words for him. The laws of com- position are as strict as those of sculpture and architecture. There is always one line that ought to be drawn, or one proportion that should be kept, and every other line or proportion is wrong, and so far wrong as it deviates from this. So in writing, there is always a right word, and every other than that is wrong. There is no beauty in words except in their collocation. The effect of a fanciful word misplaced, is like that of a horn of exquisite polish growing on a human head.