Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ...you get back again to that idea of Mrs Rheinhart's that that meant a luxury. It may be an added quality. I should say that includes beauty. Now harmony is built up of fine choices, isn't it? The finest choice that you can have. And if you look at the other fine arts--look at the art of poetry. We illustrated one time a line from Dante relating to the dawn. Now his choice of words there "I1 Tremoloso il de Marina,"--the twinkle of the sea at dawn--there is a choice! A commonplace man would not have chosen that in just that way, of bringing that thought to you very strongly. It is a very fine choice. How many of those there are in Stevenson! I am always quoting Treasure Island to my method class, and I was pleased to see that the department of English has taken that as a textbook--in some colleges at any rate, for the beautiful expression, the beautiful choice of words. Here is one " The wind whistled along in the dusk among the tossing pines." How fine that is! ' Well, now, all those words are in the dictionary. I remember I was speaking to a man once about his use of a certain word. I thought he was not using it in the sense that people understood---'I thought he was misapplying it. He said it was in the dictionary. He said it belonged to everybody and anybody could use it who wanted to. Now to pick out these words and put them together and make that fine choice and bring that to you so powerfully is art. Daudet's little story is one of these fine things. Every sentence, every word, is chosen to bring to you-the emotion in the strongest way. I wonder in what sense these things are luxuries, these fine choices of the poets and the writers? I wonder how they are diversions, or how they are...