On this account there are regular
models for ending a book or a Poem, as there are for beginning one;
but, for my part, I think the best way of ending a book is to rummage
about among one's manuscripts till one has found a bit of Fine Writing
(no matter upon what subject), to lead up the last paragraphs by no
matter what violent shocks to the thing it deals with, to introduce a
row of asterisks, and then to paste on to the paper below these the
piece of Fine Writing one has found.
I knew a man once who always wrote the end of a book first, when his
mind was fresh, and so worked gradually back to the introductory
chapter, which (he said) was ever a kind of summary, and could not be
properly dealt with till a man knew all about his subject. He said
this was a sovran way to write History.
But it seems to me that this is pure extravagance, for it would lead
one at last to beginning at the bottom of the last page, like the
Hebrew Bible, and (if it were fully carried out) to writing one's
sentences backwards till one had a style like the London School of
Poets:
