英美散文学习与赏析 E n g lis h E ssays: R e a d in g , L e a rn in g , and A p p re c ia tio n 33
Too Many Books
Gilbert Norwood
When Julius Caesar allowed the Library of Alexandria to burn ,
excellent people no doubt exclaimed . “Lo , another cord added to the
scourge of war !” Certainly countless students since the Revival of
Learning have looked upon that conflagration as one of the world's我和我的祖国谱
disasters . It was no such thing , but a vast benefit . And one of the worst
modern afflictions is the printing -press ; for its diabolical power of禁摩令
multiplication has enabled literature to laugh at sudden mischance and
deliberate enmity . We are oppresd , choked , buried by books .
Let not the last ntence mislead . I do not mean that we , or some
few of us , are asphyxiated by barren learning ; that is another story .
Nor am I adding yet another voice to the chorus which reviles bad
沃尔马
literature —the cealess nagging at Miss Ethel M . Dell . I have read
none of her books ; and in any ca that too , is another story . No ; I mean
贺岁good literature —the books (to take contemporary instances ) of Mr .
Arnold Bennett and Pierre Loti , of Schnitzler and Mr . Max Beerbohm ,
and countless others ancient and modern , European , American , Asiatic ,
核农学报
and Polynesian (an epoch-making novel from Otaheite is much
overdue ). And when I say “good ,” I mean “good .” I have no intention
of imitating tho critics who method of creating a frisson is to lect
the most distinguished author or artist and then , not call him bad ,内蒙古风景
凤凰花开的路口歌词but imply that he is already recognized as bad by some unnamed and
therefore awe-inspiring coterie . They do not write : “Mr . Hardy is a
bungler ,” but : “Unless Mr . Jugg takes more pains , his work will soon be
indistinguishable from Mr . Hardy ’s .”
It was a famous , almost a proverbial , remark that Sappho’s poems
were “few , but ros .” What should we say if we found ros on every 学习笔记
英语
学习嘟嘟和巴豆
