Books and Reading: Or, What Books Shall I Read and how Shall I Read Them? |
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admiration ancient attractive biography books and reading called cerning character Christian Coleridge conscience criticism culture delight diction earnest elevated eloquence eminent emotions England English language English literature Essays ethical evil excited F. W. Newman facts faith favorite French Revolution furnish genius George Eliot George Grote give Goethe habits History of Greece human illustrate imagery imagination impressions individual influence inspiration instructive intellectual intelligent interest J. J. Thomas judge judgment language less litera literary lives Matthew Arnold ment Milton mind modern moral nature newspapers novels opinions passions person Philosophy poem poet poetic poetry political principles reader reason refined respect Robert Southey rule Sainte Beuve sense sentiment Shakspeare soul spirit story style sympathy T. H. Huxley taste thought and feeling tion tory treatises true truth ture verse volume words worth writer written
Popular passages
Page 257 - In regions mild of calm and serene air, Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care.
Page 82 - There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out...
Page 52 - We get no good By being ungenerous, even to a book, And calculating profits . . so much help By so much reading. It is rather when We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound, Impassioned for its beauty and salt of truth — 'Tis then we get the right good from a book.
Page 23 - OATS [a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people], — Croker.
Page 83 - So spake the cherub, and his grave rebuke Severe in youthful beauty, added grace Invincible: abashed the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is, and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely, saw, and pined His loss; but chiefly to find here observed His lustre visibly impaired; yet seemed 850 Undaunted. If I must contend...
Page 22 - I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon's teeth : and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men. And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book : who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image ; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself — kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye.
Page 244 - Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge ; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science.
Page 52 - Wise men have said, are wearisome ; who reads Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself...
Page 245 - In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and manners, of laws and customs ; in spite of things silently gone out of mind, and things violently destroyed, the poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth and over all time." " Poetry," says Matthew Arnold, in memorable words, " is simply the most beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of saying things and hence its importance.
Page 84 - Ye have the account Of my performance; what remains, ye Gods, But up and enter now into full bliss ? " So having said, a while he stood, expecting Their universal shout and high applause To fill his ear; when, contrary, he hears, On all sides, from innumerable tongues A dismal universal hiss, the sound Of public scorn.