So I went to bed, but not to sleep.  During the greater part of the night I lay awake, musing upon the work which I had determined to execute.  For a long time my brain was dry and unproductive; I could form no plan which appeared feasible.  At length I felt within my brain a kindly glow; it was the commencement of inspiration; in a few minutes I had formed my plan; I then began to imagine the scenes and the incidents.  Scenes and incidents flitted before my mind’s eye so plentifully, that I knew not how to dispose of them; I was in a regular embarrassment.  At length I got out of the difficulty in the easiest manner imaginable, namely, by consigning to the depths of oblivion all the feebler and less stimulant scenes and incidents, and retaining the better and more impressive ones.  Before morning I had sketched the whole work on the tablets of my mind, and then resigned myself to sleep in the pleasing conviction that the most difficult part of my undertaking was achieved.

CHAPTER LVI

Considerably sobered—­Power of writing—­The tempter—­Hungry talent—­Work concluded.

Rather late in the morning I awoke; for a few minutes I lay still, perfectly still; my imagination was considerably sobered; the scenes and situations which had pleased me so much over night appeared to me in a far less captivating guise that morning.  I felt languid and almost hopeless—­the thought, however, of my situation soon roused me—­I must make an effort to improve the posture of my affairs; there was no time to be lost; so I sprang out of bed, breakfasted on bread and water, and then sat down doggedly to write the life of Joseph Sell.

It was a great thing to have formed my plan, and to have arranged the scenes in my head, as I had done on the preceding night.  The chief thing requisite at present was the mere mechanical act of committing them to paper.  This I did not find at first so easy as I could wish—­I wanted mechanical skill; but I persevered, and before evening I had written ten pages.  I partook of some bread and water; and before I went to bed that night, I had completed fifteen pages of my life of Joseph Sell.

The next day I resumed my task—­I found my power of writing considerably increased; my pen hurried rapidly over the paper—­my brain was in a wonderfully teeming state; many scenes and visions which I had not thought of before were evolved, and, as fast as evolved, written down; they seemed to be more pat to my purpose, and more natural to my history, than many others which I had imagined before, and which I made now give place to these newer creations:  by about midnight I had added thirty fresh pages to my Life and Adventures of Joseph Sell.

The third day arose—­it was dark and dreary out of doors, and I passed it drearily enough within; my brain appeared to have lost much of its former glow, and my pen much of its power; I, however, toiled on, but at midnight had only added seven pages to my history of Joseph Sell.