Literary Character of Men of Genius. Disraeli Isaac

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СКАЧАТЬ in literature and art.—Of their self-immolations. 136

      CHAPTER XIII.

      Of the jealousy of genius.—Jealousy often proportioned to the degree of genius.—A perpetual fever among authors and artists. —Instances of its incredible excess among brothers and benefactors.—Of a peculiar species, where the fever consumes the sufferer without its malignancy. 154

      CHAPTER XIV.

      Want of mutual esteem among men of genius often originates in a deficiency of analogous ideas.—It is not always envy or jealousy which induces men of genius to undervalue each other. 159

      CHAPTER XV.

      Self-praise of genius.—The love of praise instinctive in the nature of genius.—A high opinion of themselves necessary for their great designs.—The ancients openly claimed their own praise.—And several moderns.—An author knows more of his merits than his readers.—And less of his defects.—Authors versatile in their admiration and their malignity. 162

      CHAPTER XVI.

      The domestic life of genius.—Defects of great compositions attributed to domestic infelicities.—The home of the literary character should be the abode of repose and silence.—Of the father.—Of the mother.—Of family genius.—Men of genius not more respected than other men in their domestic circle.—The cultivators of science and art do not meet on equal terms with others, in domestic life.—Their neglect of those around them. —Often accused of imaginary crimes. 173

      CHAPTER XVII.

      The poverty of literary men.—Poverty, a relative quality.—Of the poverty of literary men in what degree desirable.—Extreme poverty.—Task-work.—Of gratuitous works.—A project to provide against the worst state of poverty among literary men. 186

      CHAPTER XVIII.

      The matrimonial state of literature.—Matrimony said not to be well-suited to the domestic life of genius.—Celibacy a concealed cause of the early querulousness of men of genius.—Of unhappy unions.—Not absolutely necessary that the wife should be a literary woman.—Of the docility and susceptibility of the higher female character.—A picture of a literary wife. 198

      CHAPTER XIX.

      Literary friendships.—In early life.—Different from those of men of the world.—They suffer in unrestrained communication of their ideas, and bear reprimands and exhortations.—Unity of feelings.—A sympathy not of manners but of feelings.—Admit of dissimilar characters.—Their peculiar glory.—Their sorrow. 209

      CHAPTER XX.

      The literary and the personal character.—The personal dispositions of an author may be the reverse of those which appear in his writings.—Erroneous conceptions of the character of distant authors.—Paradoxical appearances in the history of genius.—Why the character of the man may be opposite to that of his writings. 217

      CHAPTER XXI.

      The man of letters.—Occupies an intermediate station between authors and readers.—His solitude described.—Often the father of genius.—Atticus, a man of letters of antiquity.—The perfect character of a modern man of letters exhibited in Peiresc.— Their utility to authors and artists. 226

      CHAPTER XXII.

      Literary old age still learning.—Influence of late studies in life.—Occupations in advanced age of the literary character. —Of literary men who have died at their studies. 238

      CHAPTER XXIII.

      Universality of genius.—Limited notion of genius entertained by the ancients.—Opposite faculties act with diminished force. —Men of genius excel only in a single art. 244

      CHAPTER XXIV.

      Literature an avenue to glory.—An intellectual nobility not chimerical, but created by public opinion.—Literary honours of various nations.—Local associations with the memory of the man of genius. 248

      CHAPTER XXV.

      Influence of authors on society, and of society on authors. —National tastes a source of literary prejudices.—True genius always the organ of its nation.—Master-writers preserve the distinct national character.—Genius the organ of the state of the age.—Causes of its suppression in a people.—Often invented, but neglected.—The natural gradations of genius.—Men of genius produce their usefulness in privacy—The public mind is now the creation of the public writer.—Politicians affect to deny this principle.—Authors stand between the governors and the governed.—A view of the solitary author in his study.—They create an epoch in history.—Influence of popular authors.—The immortality of thought.—The family of genius illustrated by their genealogy. 258

LITERARY MISCELLANIES.

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      Miscellanists 281

      Prefaces 286

      Style 291

      Goldsmith and Johnson 294

      Self-characters 295

      On reading 298

      On habituating ourselves to an individual pursuit 302

      On novelty in literature 305

      Vers de Société 308

      The genius of Molière 310

      The sensibility of Racine 325

      Of Sterne 332

      Hume, Robertson, and Birch 340

      Of voluminous works incomplete by the deaths of the authors 350

      Of domestic novelties at first condemned 355

      Domesticity; or a dissertation on servants 364

      Printed letters in the vernacular idiom 375

CHARACTER OF JAMES THE FIRST.

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      Advertisement 383

      Of the first modern assailants of the character of James I., Burnet, Bolingbroke and Pope, Harris, Macaulay, and Walpole 386

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