| Author: | William Stockert | ISBN: | 1230000198211 |
| Publisher: | WDS Publishing | Publication: | November 21, 2013 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | William Stockert |
| ISBN: | 1230000198211 |
| Publisher: | WDS Publishing |
| Publication: | November 21, 2013 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
The art of essay-writing is peculiar: some of the greatest have never
indulged in it and yet literature would be poorer without the essays
of Bacon, Montaigne, Emerson and Schopenhauer. I had never thought of
writing essays; but my friend Esar Levine, who knows my writings
better than I know them myself, insists that my fugitive attempts
are worthy of enduring form. Naturally I was easy to persuade and
they are now assembled in a book for my readers to judge.
I prefer Bacon's Essays to his larger works which indeed I have never
even read through; Schopenhauer's Essays also are more interesting to
me than his masterpiece, and surely everyone prefers Emerson's Essays
to his poetry though now and then he wears the singer's robe with a
certain majesty; but after all, Montaigne, nearly all of whose works
may be called essays, and Bacon are the true types of essayists and
the greatest masters of the art. Both appear to write any thing that
comes into their heads and they always find something interesting to
say.
The art of essay-writing is peculiar: some of the greatest have never
indulged in it and yet literature would be poorer without the essays
of Bacon, Montaigne, Emerson and Schopenhauer. I had never thought of
writing essays; but my friend Esar Levine, who knows my writings
better than I know them myself, insists that my fugitive attempts
are worthy of enduring form. Naturally I was easy to persuade and
they are now assembled in a book for my readers to judge.
I prefer Bacon's Essays to his larger works which indeed I have never
even read through; Schopenhauer's Essays also are more interesting to
me than his masterpiece, and surely everyone prefers Emerson's Essays
to his poetry though now and then he wears the singer's robe with a
certain majesty; but after all, Montaigne, nearly all of whose works
may be called essays, and Bacon are the true types of essayists and
the greatest masters of the art. Both appear to write any thing that
comes into their heads and they always find something interesting to
say.
