Excerpt from Zanoni
In looking round the wide and luminous circle of our great living Englishmen, to select one to whom I might fitly dedicate this work, - one who, in his life as in his genius, might illustrate the principle I have sought to convey; - elevated by the ideal which he exalts, and serenely dwelling in a glorious existence with the images born of his imagination, - in looking round for some such man, my thoughts rested upon you. Afar from our turbulent cabals - from the ignoble jealousy and the sordid strife which degrade and acerbate the ambition of Genius, - in your Roman Home, you have lived amidst all that is loveliest and least perishable in the Past, and contributed, with the noblest aims, and in the purest spirit, to the mighty heirlooms of the Future. Your youth has been devoted to toil that your manhood may be consecrated to fame; - a fame unsullied by one desire of gold. You have escaped the two worst perils that beset the Artist in our time and land - the debasing tendencies of Commerce, and the angry rivalries of Competition. You have not wrought your marble for the market - you have not been tempted by the praises which our vicious criticism has showered upon exaggeration and distortion, to lower your taste to the level of the Hour; you have lived, and you have laboured, as if you had no rivals, but in the Dead - no purchasers, save in judges of what is best. In the divine Priesthood of the Beautiful, you have sought only to increase her worshippers and enrich her temples. The pupil of Canova, you have inherited his excellences, while you have shunned his errors: - yours his delicacy, not his affectation.
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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Zanoni (Classic Reprint) (Edward Bulwer Lytton)