I do not know why it is, but stories in which animals are made to
talk and act like human beings have never appealed to me very strongly.
The ludicrous caricatures of the animals occupy my mind to the exclusion
of the moral.Then, again, La Fontaine seldom, if ever, appeals to our
higher moral sense. The highest chords he strikes are those of reason
and self-love. Through all the fables runs the thought that man's
morality springs wholly from self-love, and that if that self-love is
directed and restrained by reason, happiness must follow. Now, so far as
I can judge, self-love is the root of all evil; but, of course, I may
be wrong, for La Fontaine had greater opportunities of observing men
than I am likely ever to have. I do not object so much to the cynical
and satirical fables as to those in which momentous truths are taught by
monkeys and foxes. cheap north face jackets
But I love "The Jungle Book" and "Wild Animals I Have Known." I feel a
genuine interest in the animals themselves, because they are real
animals and not caricatures of men. One sympathizes with their loves and
hatreds, laughs over their comedies, and weeps over their tragedies.
And if they point a moral, it is so subtle that we are not conscious of
it.My mind opened naturally and joyously to a conception of antiquity.
Greece, ancient Greece, exercised a mysterious fascination over me. In
my fancy the pagan gods and goddesses still walked on earth and talked
face to face with men, and in my heart I secretly built shrines to those
I loved best. http://www.cheapnortface.com/
I knew and loved the whole tribe of nymphs and heroes and demigods--no,
not quite all, for the cruelty and greed of Medea and Jason were too
monstrous to be forgiven, and I used to wonder why the gods permitted
them to do wrong and then punished them for their wickedness. And the
mystery is still unsolved. I often wonder howGod can dumbness keepWhile
Sin creeps grinning through His house of Time.It was the Iliad that made
Greece my paradise. I was familiar with the story of Troy before I read
it in the original, and consequently I had little difficulty in making
the Greek words surrender their treasures after I had passed the
borderland of grammar. Great poetry, whether written in Greek or in
English, needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart. Would that
the host of those who make the great works of the poets odious by their
analysis, impositions and laborious comments might learn this simple
truth! It is not necessary that one should be able to define every word
and give it its principal parts and its grammatical position in the
sentence in order to understand and appreciate a fine poem. North Face Women Jacket
I know my learned professors have found greater riches in the Iliad
than I shall ever find; but I am not avaricious. I am content that
others should be wiser than I. But with all their wide and comprehensive
knowledge, they cannot measure their enjoyment of that splendid epic,
nor can I. When I read the finest passages of the Iliad, I am conscious
of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances
of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten--my world lies upward,
the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine!My
admiration for the Aeneid is not so great, but it is none the less real.
I read it as much as possible without the help of notes or dictionary,
and I always like to translate the episodes that please me especially.
The word-painting of Virgil is wonderful sometimes; but his gods and men
move through the scenes of passion and strife and pity and love like
the graceful figures in an Elizabethan mask, whereas in the Iliad they
give three leaps and go on singing.
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