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Article DETACHED THOUGHTS ONBOOKS. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Detached Thoughts Onbooks.
Some books arc the common topics of conversation for a month or two , or three—but are never heard of after . Wherefore should I encumber myself with twenty thousand , vflicn a hundred will answer all my purposes , and be full as much , as 1 cat . digest ? I do not know that even a hundred are — -if we exclude
necessary the endless- writers of idle imagination and vain disputation of all ages and countries : but admit them , even with choice arid deliberation , and twenty thousand were not sufficient . The same things are said over and over—and there remains no ^ thing new . to be said , to the point of truth- —though arguments " and controversy , from given and suppositious , premises , will hist till the ' ¦ ' ¦
end of the . world . .. -. The different styles and manners of writers ' will always Entitle some to a deserved preference—but the matter is the same ., tlibugh diversely said . ; . „ , . ' , The sentiment or sentence upon which we" commonly 'build , is short—and may . be comprised iu . tho fewest words- —soii'Te ' two , or three , or half a dozen , or half a . score—twenty , at inosti- ^ Fron .
such simple foundations , we raise ania-dng ' supersh-uctiiresl—But it is all flourish and exposition—save , what is spent in Wraifo-Hog and downri ght contradiction— or falsehoodin the very ' teatli of Truth—Which-generally makes the greatest partof . the ' book . Is it good ?— -yoii may venture to conclude it ' common . , To call . itsuch-a-one ' s saying , is childish . — It is like simpleton ' repetition of the thing tritearidiBakintr
a s so — " his father , or . his . grandmother , a present of it . ^ ° Over shoes , over boots !— ' as my father says . ' It-never rains , but it pours 1—' as my grandmother-used to . say . " All truth ,, ail science , is reducible to axioms;—many labouring aj : the same point , will resolve it after the same manner , and , ' frequently , almost in . the same words : —thence sentences arid '' topics ' arose ; ¦ which
soon became general , and were ,, in substanre , in everyone ' s mouth—the learned still regarding and prc-sei-v . i . ug . Eiieni in cboicesen- _ fences— -the unlearned , vulgarizing a great number of them . in « v *' : common proverbs . Many common sayings with us , were no less co-mifioh among the nations and people Who lived two or three thousand years ago . ° Can any man be so doltish , as to imagine that the wit '" of ' Solomon - and the son of Sirach was all their own ? .
INO , surely—the s-pirit of their writings was known , several-centuries before they were bom - .- —they , indeed , had the merit of collecting and digesting the scattered truths of ages . ; arid of putting them ia a more elegant form . ° - They did well— -and we are bound in gratitude to revere their memory , for the pains they bestowed . , The sentences of the wise and viiiuoti-swere common to sect
, every of philosophy ; and approved by all—' —It mattered not who spake them , nor from what school they came ; so that tho lesson was general , and the truth incontrovertible . The E picureans rejected not the apophthegms ' of _| V Stoics ' - , ne . i-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Detached Thoughts Onbooks.
Some books arc the common topics of conversation for a month or two , or three—but are never heard of after . Wherefore should I encumber myself with twenty thousand , vflicn a hundred will answer all my purposes , and be full as much , as 1 cat . digest ? I do not know that even a hundred are — -if we exclude
necessary the endless- writers of idle imagination and vain disputation of all ages and countries : but admit them , even with choice arid deliberation , and twenty thousand were not sufficient . The same things are said over and over—and there remains no ^ thing new . to be said , to the point of truth- —though arguments " and controversy , from given and suppositious , premises , will hist till the ' ¦ ' ¦
end of the . world . .. -. The different styles and manners of writers ' will always Entitle some to a deserved preference—but the matter is the same ., tlibugh diversely said . ; . „ , . ' , The sentiment or sentence upon which we" commonly 'build , is short—and may . be comprised iu . tho fewest words- —soii'Te ' two , or three , or half a dozen , or half a . score—twenty , at inosti- ^ Fron .
such simple foundations , we raise ania-dng ' supersh-uctiiresl—But it is all flourish and exposition—save , what is spent in Wraifo-Hog and downri ght contradiction— or falsehoodin the very ' teatli of Truth—Which-generally makes the greatest partof . the ' book . Is it good ?— -yoii may venture to conclude it ' common . , To call . itsuch-a-one ' s saying , is childish . — It is like simpleton ' repetition of the thing tritearidiBakintr
a s so — " his father , or . his . grandmother , a present of it . ^ ° Over shoes , over boots !— ' as my father says . ' It-never rains , but it pours 1—' as my grandmother-used to . say . " All truth ,, ail science , is reducible to axioms;—many labouring aj : the same point , will resolve it after the same manner , and , ' frequently , almost in . the same words : —thence sentences arid '' topics ' arose ; ¦ which
soon became general , and were ,, in substanre , in everyone ' s mouth—the learned still regarding and prc-sei-v . i . ug . Eiieni in cboicesen- _ fences— -the unlearned , vulgarizing a great number of them . in « v *' : common proverbs . Many common sayings with us , were no less co-mifioh among the nations and people Who lived two or three thousand years ago . ° Can any man be so doltish , as to imagine that the wit '" of ' Solomon - and the son of Sirach was all their own ? .
INO , surely—the s-pirit of their writings was known , several-centuries before they were bom - .- —they , indeed , had the merit of collecting and digesting the scattered truths of ages . ; arid of putting them ia a more elegant form . ° - They did well— -and we are bound in gratitude to revere their memory , for the pains they bestowed . , The sentences of the wise and viiiuoti-swere common to sect
, every of philosophy ; and approved by all—' —It mattered not who spake them , nor from what school they came ; so that tho lesson was general , and the truth incontrovertible . The E picureans rejected not the apophthegms ' of _| V Stoics ' - , ne . i-