Consider his
fine powers as a biographer, but be impressed with the unsurpassed
diligence of Southey's life.
Are you reading Emerson's shorter essay on "Nature"? So peruse it that,
when you go out among the trees and grass and flowers, you will feel
the same kinship with them as did he.
History and biography, the sketch and criticism even, have been made
truly charming of late years by the vividness in which actions have
been depicted and characters portrayed, as well as by clearness and
beauty in expression. We turn to an historical work with as much zest
as to a romance, and find in it, now, that enthusiasm, that liveliness,
that interest in human affairs which old historians allowed to be
obscured by dates and names. If you are studying Roman history, be never
so particular about when each battle was fought as about the great
causes of the rise of Rome,--energy, pride, deprivation, hardihood,
union of citizens, sturdiness, ferocious perseverance, courage,
abstinence, valor: remark the results attained by these qualities,--
Rome, the mistress of the world, with an empire stretching to the ends
of the earth. Then note the causes of her fall,--greediness, wealth,
luxury, effeminacy, satiety, corrupt morals,--and bring the lesson home
to your own nation, and to your own selves. Says Mr. Ruskin, "It is of
little consequence how many positions of cities a woman knows, or how
many dates of events, or how many names of celebrated persons--it is
not the object of education to turn a woman into a dictionary.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81