Gems From The Best Authors Grave And Gay

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Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781334133220
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (332 download)

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Download or read book Gems From the Best Authors written by and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Gems From the Best Authors: Grave and Gay I have occasionally amused my fancy by feigning the existence of a future state for books - a whole phantasmal world inhabited by the ghosts of dead and gone epics, dramas, romances, and where all the characters of fiction glide murmuring by, veritable shadows of shades. Over the portico would be inscribed Habent sua fata libelli; and the three kingdoms would all be thronged. In the infernal regions proper, we should look to find Heine and Swift and all the swarm of gross and profane writers, and with them whatever in literature is trite or dull or insincere, for in art these are among the cardinal sins. That which is not good in literature is bad; there is no mean or borderland. Neither gods nor men nor birds of the air can endure an indifferent bard. Yet better a quavering note than a false one; and for your dis sembling poet the deepest dungeons are in store. Many a sonnet that in its day was greatly praised, resembling with its mincing gait and affected phrase some fine coquette, now lies quite chapfallen, spite of all its airs and graces and paint an inch thick. For a lie is in its nature mortal and vulnerable; your glass and plaster will sooner or later crack and crumble, how bravely soever they aunt it in robes of silver or bronze; that which a man but half feels, but half believes, is forever at war with itself, and will die self-slain. False taste of a certain sort we call meretricious the phrase implies a harsh censure, but a just one. A fair and honest thought will never be over-dressed. A noble conception, a fine fancy, how ever it may snfier in effectiveness or grace when clothed in other language, will still retain some power to thrill or charm, for beauty is unchangeable in its essence; but how woefully the poverty of many a pompous phrase is exposed by stripping it of its rhetoric! One that wraps the drapery of his couch about him does but tuck himself up in his bed-clothes; and 1f the latter is not a striking or poetical image, then neither is the former. But take such an image as this. 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."