| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only
our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon
us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever
yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though
often and earnestly invited to it.
Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like
expedients, 'till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that
there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them
into practice.
But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with
offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly
A Modest Proposal |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: the wife of a friend, a woman eight years older than myself. . .
. It wasn't anything splendid, you know. It was just a shabby,
stupid, furtive business that began between us. Like stealing.
We dressed it in a little music. . . . I want you to understand
clearly that I was indebted to the man in many small ways. I was
mean to him. . . . It was the gratification of an immense
necessity. We were two people with a craving. We felt like
thieves. We WERE thieves. . . . We LIKED each other well enough.
Well, my friend found us out, and would give no quarter. He
divorced her. How do you like the story?"
"Go on," said Ann Veronica, a little hoarsely, "tell me all of
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: be worthless, but those with poor initials, or with none, were quite good,
and when sorted out I found I had got large portions of nearly twenty
different MSS., mostly Horae, showing twelve varieties of fifteenth
century handwriting in Latin, French, Dutch, and German. I had each sort
bound separately, and they now form an interesting collection.
Portrait collectors have destroyed many books by abstracting
the frontispiece to add to their treasures, and when once
a book is made imperfect, its march to destruction is rapid.
This is why books like Atkyns' "Origin and Growth
of Printing," 40, 1664, have become impossible to get.
When issued, Atkyns' pamphlet had a fine frontispiece,
|
