Twelve TypesThis 1906 volume offers a collection of the prominent English writer's essays, including his study of Charlotte Brontė. |
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admirable ęsthetic ancient artificial artist ascetic asceticism asserts Augustine Birrell Baildon beautiful believe Byron Carlyle Carlyle's century character Charles Charles II Charlotte Brontė Christ Christianity civilisation consists critic Cyrano de Bergerac dark darkly wise denied dream eloquence enemy essential eternal ethical evil fact feel genius happiness hardest of gospels heart heroic comedy human nature imagination Jane Eyre kind of regard learnt literary literature logic Lord Randolph Churchill man's Master of Ballantrae matter merely modern monks moral moralist would call mystic narrow moralist ness never optimistic perhaps pessimism pessimist philosophers pleasure poet poetical political Pope praise preters Puritanism rationalistic religion Renaissance return to nature revolution rhyme romance Rostand Savonarola sceptic sense simplicity soul speak spirit Stanley Weyman Stevenson story strange supreme sword terrible theory things THOMAS CARLYLE thousand Tolstoians Tolstoy tragedy true truth utterly virtues weakness whole William Morris words writer
Popular passages
Page 56 - Peace to all such ! but were there one whose fires True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires; Blest with each talent and each art to please, And born to write, converse, and live with ease : Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne...
Page 60 - A Book of Verses underneath the Bough, \ A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou 1 Beside me singing in the Wilderness — / Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
Page 57 - And born to write, converse, and live with ease: Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne, View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, And hate for arts that caused himself to rise...
Page 39 - THERE'S not a joy the world can give like that it takes away, When the glow of early thought declines in feeling's dull decay ; 'Tis not on youth's smooth cheek the blush alone, which fades so fast, But the tender bloom of heart is gone, ere youth itself be past.
Page 150 - There was an Old Man who said, 'How, — shall I flee from this horrible Cow? I will sit on this stile, and continue to smile, Which may soften the heart of that Cow.
Page 177 - Ride your ways,' said the gipsy, 'ride your ways, Laird of Ellangowan — ride your ways, Godfrey Bertram! — This day have ye quenched seven smoking hearths — see if the fire in your ain parlour burn the blither for that. Ye have riven the thack off seven cottar houses — look if your ain roof-tree stand the faster.
Page 23 - There is a noble instinct for giving the right touch of beauty to common and necessary things, but the things that are so touched are the ancient things, the things that always to some extent commended themselves to the lover of beauty. There are beautiful gates, beautiful fountains, beautiful cups, beautiful chairs, beautiful reading-desks. But there are no modern things made beautiful. There are no beautiful lamp-posts, beautiful letter-boxes, beautiful engines, beautiful bicycles.
Page 160 - To speak of having the same kind of regard for both is about as sensible as asking a man whether he prefers chrysanthemums or billiards. Christ did not love humanity ; He never said He loved humanity : He loved men. Neither He nor anyone else can love humanity ; it is like loving a gigantic centipede. And the reason that the Tolstoians can even endure to think of an equally distributed affection is that their love of humanity is a logical love, a love into which they are coerced by their own theories,...
Page 35 - ... Byron's love of the desolate and inhuman in nature was the mark of vital scepticism and depression. When a young man can elect deliberately to walk alone in winter by the side of the shattering sea, when he takes pleasure in storms and stricken peaks, and the lawless melancholy...
Page 45 - An element of paradox runs through the whole of existence itself. It begins in the realm of ultimate physics and metaphysics, in the two facts that we cannot imagine a space that is infinite, and that we cannot imagine a space that is finite. It runs through the inmost complications of divinity, in that we cannot conceive that Christ in the wilderness was truly pure, unless we also conceive that He desired to sin. It runs, in the same manner, through all the minor -matters of morals, so that we cannot...