Men and Letters: Essays in Characterization and CriticismHoughton, Mifflin, 1887 - 235 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
admiration Alexander Gilchrist American history appeared artist believe Bodleys Boston Bowdoin College character Christ Christianity Church Cimabue conception consciousness conversation critical diary disclose distinction drama Emerson England English Excelsior expression fact faith familiar feeling Frederick Denison Maurice friends George Eliot Gilchrist give Golden Legend historian historical student human ical interest Landor letters light literary literature Longfellow look marked Mary Lamb Maurice Maurice's ment mind Mont Blanc Mulford nation nature ness never once one's passion period philosophical phrase poem poet poet's poetic poetry political prophet prose Puritan reader regard religious rience scarcely scenes sciousness second draft seemed sense Shake Shakespeare sion speak speare spect spirit stage stanza Tennyson theme things thought tion took translation truth ture uncon UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA verse voice whole words writings wrote youth
Popular passages
Page 164 - I am born a poet, of a low class without doubt, yet a poet. That is my nature and vocation. My singing be sure is very 'husky,' and is for the most part in prose.
Page 47 - That the whole air and the woods and the waves seemed silent to listen. Plaintive at first were the tones and sad ; then soaring to madness Seemed they to follow or guide the revel of frenzied Bacchantes. Single notes...
Page 218 - In the neighing of a horse or in the growling of a mastiff there is a meaning, there is as lively expression, and may I say more humanity than many times in the tragical flights of Shakespeare.
Page 26 - The fact is — and I will not disguise it in the least, for I think I ought not — the fact is, I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature ; my whole soul burns most ardently for it, and every earthly thought centres in it.
Page 205 - Madox Brown] a fortnight ago, and he put into my hands your edition of Walt Whitman's poems. I shall not cease to thank him for that. Since I have had it, I can read no other book: it holds me entirely spell-bound, and I go through it again and again with deepening delight and wonder.
Page 52 - Longfellow, in the Golden Legend, has entered more closely into the temper of the Monk, for good and for evil, than ever yet theological writer or historian, though they may have given their life's labor to the analysis...
Page 45 - The great art of translating well lies in the power of rendering literally the words of a foreign author while at the same time we preserve the spirit of the original.
Page 26 - I most eagerly aspire after future eminence in literature; my whole soul burns ardently for it, and every earthly thought centres in it. There may be something visionary in this, but I flatter myself that I have prudence enough to keep my enthusiasm from defeating its own object by too great haste. Surely there never was a better opportunity offered for exertion of literary talent in our own country than is now offered.
Page 27 - Whether Nature has given me any capacity for knowledge or not, she has at any rate given me a very strong predilection for literary pursuits, and I am almost confident in believing, that, if I can ever rise in the world, it must be by the exercise of my talent in the wide field of literature.
Page 160 - I have, or had, a strong imagination, and consequently a keen relish for the beauties of poetry. . . . My reasoning faculty is proportionably weak, nor can I ever hope to write a Butler's Analogy or an Essay of Hume. Nor is it strange that with this confession I should choose theology, which is from everlasting to everlasting 'debateable ground.