Excerpt from Crowned Masterpieces of Literature, Vol. 1 of 10: That Have Advanced Civilization
Bless the essayist! He is our true literary friend. He instructs, entertains, or amuses us. and he does it quickly. He knows that in these rapid days time is of the essence of the contract and is always on time in closing. He gives us no preface, puts no "stump speech in the belly of the bill," and does not detain us by a peroration or even a benediction. The latter we pronounce. He points to no quarto or folio as his accumulation of thought. He hands ns a morsel, bids us taste its sweetness, smell its fragrance, and be thankful that it is only a morsel. He invites us to a lunch and not a dinner, and yet how choice is that lunch! Ganymede serves at the table. With him it is not quantity, but quality; multum hand multa. He has few words, but they arc thought-bearers. They mean something; suggest something. We are stronger, better, happier, when wc have read them. And this, because some one thought has been placed before us so clearly, so vividly, that we recognize its reality, its value, as never before.
The essayist has often the suggestiveness. the divination of the poet. Indeed, he may well be called the poet's cousin. They both are seers, prophets. Montaigne anticipated the France of to-day. Rolling a single idea over and over, he sees what its force is. what its tendency; and so seeing declares with the accuracy of the mechanical engineer what will be to-morrow's result of to-day's idea.
But the essayist has not always the solemnity of the prophet. He knows that we like to be pleased, to be amused, and with his gifted pen he touches the secret springs of pleasure and amusement. How often when tired do we pick up some friendly essay, and reading it find it potent to "drive dull care away."
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
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 Crowned Masterpieces of Literature, Vol. 1 of 10 (David J. Brewer)