ARGUMENT. REFUGE IN A LIBRARY. CONVERSE WITH BOOKS.-POLEMICAL WRITERS.-POETS- BOOKS READ OVER AGAIN. THE WORLDLY CONTINUALLY TAKES PLACE OF THE IDEAL. CONSEQUENT INTRUSION OF PRETENCE AND PRETENSION INTO LITERATURE. PLAGIARISMS.-AFFECTATIONS OF STYLE.-AGE BEFORE THE INVENTION OF LETTERS-ITS ADVANTAGES.-AGES OF MANUSCRIPT-OF PRINTING-OF THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS. CONCLUSION.
A. -If then, in sooth, Pretension and Pretence,
The coxcomb’s half, the worldling’s double sense,
If these our age divide, or jointly share,
Compelling to confederate or to bear;
To court Pretension, while we scorn its pride,
Pretence detect, and yet conspire to hide;
How sweet, my friend, as now, to steal away,
And give to frankness one unblushing day.
Chased from yon spreading oak’s serene alcove
By modish nymph, our Dryad of the grove;
But, luckier far than Horace in his walk,
Escaped yon worldling’s overweening talk;
Peaceful with books, come, let this shrouding room
Receive us to its window-tinted gloom;
Such, Lambeth! as thy towers have harboured long,
Like cowl
(John Kenyon)
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