Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams
    An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams
    An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams
    Ebook94 pages1 hour

    An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams

    By Pierre Nicole and J. V. (James Vincent) Cunningham

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams

    Related to An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Birth Of The Semicolon

      Aug 1, 2019

      The Birth Of The Semicolon
      4 min read

    • Article

      Consider the Novella

      Aug 16, 2017

      By Douglas Trevor MANY applicants to, and first-year students in, the MFA program in which I’m fortunate to teach—the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan—see short stories as the default mode of the apprentice fiction writer. Th

      8 min read

    • Article

      Consider the Novella

      Aug 16, 2017

      MANY applicants to, and first-year students in, the MFA program in which I’m fortunate to teach—the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan—see short stories as the default mode of the apprentice fiction writer. There are plenty of

      8 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Mar 22, 2021

      by Tangaroa Walker Penguin — $38 Don’t read this book — or at least its introduction — if you don’t think you’ll be entertained by the killing of a cow when a car hits one and farcical complications ensue. As the title of that section indicates, “Far

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Forgotten History of the Chapter

      Nov 27, 2023

      The chapter possesses the trick of vanishing while in the act of serving its various purposes. The post The Forgotten History of the Chapter appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Reader Over Your Shoulder

      Jan 4, 2018

      The Reader Over Your Shoulder
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ain’t That Pretty at All; Or, Going to the Tigers

      Oct 28, 2022

      Like most people, I would often prefer to be someone else. Ideally, the prose this other self would write would not be like mine at all. The post Ain’t That Pretty at All; Or, Going to the Tigers appeared first on The Millions.

      12 min read

    • Article

      Imagination Under Pressure

      Dec 13, 2017

      BY GRANT FAULKNER PEOPLE generally want more—of everything. More money, more space, more time, more love, more recognition, more fun. Our “more mind-set” is spawned by many things: the thirst to maximize our self-fulfillment, the seductions of furthe

      7 min read

    • Article

      Bring Back Plain English

      Feb 23, 2023

      RECENTLY THE Secret Author spent a relaxing night or two not browsing impressionably through John Guillory’s Professing Criticism (Chicago University Press). Professor Guillory teaches at NYU and has written a stratospherically high-end book about th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Bring Back Plain English

      Feb 23, 2023

      RECENTLY THE Secret Author spent a relaxing night or two not browsing impressionably through John Guillory’s Professing Criticism (Chicago University Press). Professor Guillory teaches at NYU and has written a stratospherically high-end book about th

      3 min read

    • Article

      German Lessons

      Nov 14, 2019

      German Lessons
      9 min read

    • Article

      Imagination Under Pressure

      Dec 5, 2017

      PEOPLE generally want more—of everything. More money, more space, more time, more love, more recognition, more fun. Our “more mind-set” is spawned by many things: the thirst to maximize our self-fulfillment, the seductions of further pleasures, the a

      7 min read

    • Article

      Marks of Significance: On Punctuation’s Occult Power

      Jul 31, 2019

      The manipulation of the odd symbols we call letters and punctuation lend themselves to the discovery of greater truths, guideposts to a type of paradise. The post Marks of Significance: On Punctuation’s Occult Power appeared first on The Millions.

      11 min read

    • Article

      A Fraternity of Dreamers

      Oct 9, 2020

      The anxiety that libraries can sometimes give me is of a cosmic nature, for something ineffable affects my sense of self when I realize that the majority of human interaction, expression, and creativity shall forever be unavailable to me. The post A

      16 min read

    • Article

      Humble Words Organized Beautifully: Ward Farnsworth on Style

      Aug 19, 2020

      Farnsworth's philosophy of composition is wonderfully anarchic when compared to the partisans of prescription who dominate the writing classroom and the style-guide racket. The post Humble Words Organized Beautifully: Ward Farnsworth on Style appeare

      12 min read

    • Article

      Simply Impossible

      Oct 22, 2018

      Simply Impossible
      6 min read

    • Article

      What Physics Can Teach Us About Writing Fiction

      Mar 6, 2018

      Sometimes writing fiction feels to me like that oft-used image of a godlike creator: the man pulling the strings of the marionette, orchestrating each fine movement from above the stage. One string might be character, another plot, a third setting, a

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kyle Chayka

      Dec 22, 2017

      This year I felt that everything I read was self-consciously fractured into fragments. Aggressively broken up. Left to be reassembled by the reader, that is, me. Maybe it had something to do with the time we’re living through: The entire narrative ca

      4 min read

    • Article

      On Semicolons And The Rules Of Writing

      Jul 10, 2018

      1. Kurt Vonnegut’s caution against the use of semicolons is one of the most famous and canonical pieces of writing advice, an admonition that has become, so to speak, one of The Rules. More on these rules later, but first the infamous quote in questi

      6 min read

    Reviews for An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams - Pierre Nicole

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in

      which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams, by Pierre Nicole

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in which from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and Rejecting Epigrams

      Author: Pierre Nicole

      Translator: J V Cunningham

      Release Date: May 22, 2009 [EBook #28921]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAY ON TRUE AND APPARENT BEAUTY ***

      Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Richard J. Shiffer

      and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

      http://www.pgdp.net

      Transcriber's Note

      Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious error is noted at the end of this ebook.

      The Augustan Reprint Society

      An Essay on True and Apparent

      Beauty in Which From Settled Principles

      is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing

      and Rejecting Epigrams

      by Pierre Nicole

      Translated by J. V. Cunningham

      Publication Number 24

      (Series IV, No. 5)

      Los Angeles

      William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

      University of California

      1950

      GENERAL EDITORS

      H. Richard Archer, Clark Memorial Library

      Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan

      Edward Niles Hooker, University of California, Los Angeles

      H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles

      ASSISTANT EDITORS

      W. Earl Britton, University of Michigan

      John Loftis, University of California, Los Angeles

      ADVISORY EDITORS

      Emmett L. Avery, State College of Washington

      Benjamin Boyce, University of Nebraska

      Louis I. Bredvold, University of Michigan

      Cleanth Brooks, Yale University

      James L. Clifford, Columbia University

      Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago

      Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota

      Ernest Mossner, University of Texas

      James Sutherland, Queen Mary College, London

      INTRODUCTION

      The following essay forms the introduction to a famous anthology of the seventeenth century, the Epigrammatum delectus, a Port-Royal textbook published at Paris in 1659.[1] The essay was twice translated into French in the same century, but the use of the text in France did not survive, apparently, the downfall of the Port-Royal movement. It was, however, later adopted by Eton College, where it was used in the sixth form.[2] The text went through thirteen English editions between 1683 and 1762. The author of the essay, and a collaborator with Claude Lancelot in making the selections for the anthology, was Pierre Nicole, who began teaching in the Little Schools around 1646. It has been said that the essay was written at that time.[3]

      The scope of the anthology is indicated on the title page, which I translate: A selection of epigrams carefully chosen from the whole range of ancient and modern poets, and so on. With an essay on true and apparent beauty, in which from settled principles is rendered the grounds for choosing and rejecting epigrams. There are added the best sententiae of the ancient poets, chosen sparingly and with severe judgement. With shorter sententiae, or proverbs, Latin, Greek, Spanish, and Italian, drawn both from the chief authors of those languages and from everyday speech.

      The essay is preceded by a preface in which the origin, purpose and method of the anthology is explained. The two ends of instruction, we are told,[4] are learning and character, and of these the latter is the more important. But there are many books, and especially books of epigrams, that are quite filthy and obscene. Young people are led by curiosity to read these, and losing all chastity of mind enter upon a progressive corruption of life. It would be best if they could be kept wholly from such books; but there is a good deal in them of genuine profit and literary merit, which makes it difficult to keep them wholly out of the hands of youth. Therefore the editor undertook to expurgate the epigrammatists, especially Catullus and Martial. He was horrified when he read over their works, but he found some good among the bad, as in vipers not everything is poisonous but some things even useful to health. His primary purpose, then, was to protect the good young man from being harmed and to leave him no excuse for wishing to have or peruse such books since the good in them had already been extracted for him.

      The difficulty then arose of making the selection serve the purposes both of morality and of judgement. The editor could either gather together all the epigrams that were not obscene, or he could choose only the best. He took in fact both ways: he preserved everything of Catullus and Martial except the cheapest odds and ends and filthiest obscenities, and he applied strict standards of judgement to the rest so that, unless an epigram had literary merit or contained something worth knowing, he felt there was no reason to burden the book with it.

      Nevertheless, some middling epigrams found entrance

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1