The Art of LiteratureS. Sonnenschein & Company, 1891 - Literature |
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admiration amongst ancient languages appear ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER BAILEY SAUNDERS book-philosopher comes contemporaries Contrarily critical EDWARD CARPENTER English envy error everywhere excellent existence expression fact false fame Fichte genius German language give Goethe Goethe's happens Hence honour human human voice ideas immortal insight intellect intelligence interest judgment kind knowledge Latin Latin language learning literary live man's mankind matter means merely merit mind nature never obiter dicta object opinion ordinary original Parerga und Paralipomena PATERNOSTER SQUARE person philosopher phrases Plato pleasure poet possess posterity praise produce rare readable reader reading recognised remarks reputation rule sake Selected and Translated sense sentence speak sphere stand STUDIES IN PESSIMISM style theory of colour things thinker tion Translator's Note treat Tristram Shandy true truth whole words worth write
Popular passages
Page 24 - MAN, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.
Page 24 - Man," here broke in Doctor Drummummupp, at the top of his voice, and with a thump that came near knocking the pulpit about our ears; "man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live; he cometh up and is cut down like a flower!
Page 31 - But this style of writing becomes the height of absurdity when the parentheses are not even fitted into the frame of the sentence, but wedged in so as directly to shatter it. If, for instance, it is an impertinent thing to interrupt another person when he is speaking, it is no less impertinent to interrupt oneself. But all bad, careless, and hasty authors, who scribble with the bread actually before their eyes, use this style of writing six times on a page, and rejoice in it. It consists in — it...
Page 53 - A LIBRARY may be very large; but if it is in disorder, it is not so useful as one that is small but well arranged. In the same way, a man may have a great mass of knowledge, but if he has not worked it up by thinking it over for himself, it has much less value than a far smaller amount which he has thoroughly pondered. For it is only when a man looks at his knowledge from all sides, and combines the things he knows by comparing truth with truth, that he obtains a complete hold over it and gets it...
Page 23 - If words are heaped up beyond it, the thought becomes more arid more obscure again. To find where the point lies is the problem of style, and the business of the critical faculty ; for a word too much always defeats its purpose. This is what Voltaire means when he says that the adjective is the enemy of the substantive.
Page 28 - It is especially amusing to see reviewers criticising the works of others in their own most careless style — the style of a hireling. It is as though a judge were to come into court in dressing-gown and slippers ! If I see a man badly and dirtily dressed, I feel some hesitation, at first, in entering into conversation with him : and when, on taking up a book, I am struck at once by the negligence of its style, I put it away. Good writing should be governed by the rule that a man can think only...
Page xv - ... bring very much home. On the other hand, when an author of the third or rare class writes, it is like a battue. Here the game has been previously captured and shut up within a very small space; from which it is afterwards let out, so many at a time, into another space, also confined. The game cannot possibly escape the sportsman; he has .nothing to do but aim and fire, — in other words, write down /his thoughts. This is a kind of sport from which a man has something to show. But even though...
Page 77 - ... of the book will be better understood, and the beginning comprehended only when the end is known ; and partly because we are not in the same temper and disposition on both readings. On the second perusal we get a new view of every passage and a different impression of the whole book, which then appears in another light. It would be a good thing to buy books if one could also buy the time in which to read them; but generally the purchase of a book is mistaken for the acquisition of its contents.
Page 63 - The multitude of common minds, laboring under all sorts of current opinions, authorities, prejudices, is like the people, which silently obeys the law and accepts orders from above. Those who are so zealous and eager to settle debated questions by citing authorities, are really glad when they are able to put the understanding and the insight of others into the field in place of their own, which are wanting. Their number is legion. For, as Seneca says, there is no man but prefers belief to the exercise...