| | 101 | Author: | Eliot, T. S. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Second-Order Mind  | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | TO any one who is at all capable of experiencing the pleasures of justice,
it is gratifying to be able to make amends to a writer whom one has
vaguely depreciated for some years. The faults and foibles of Matthew
Arnold are no less evident to me now than twelve years ago, after my
first admiration for him; but I hope that now, on rereading some of his
prose with more care, I can better appreciate his position. And what
makes Arnold seem all the more remarkable is, that if he were our exact
contemporary, he would find all his labour to perform again. A moderate
number of persons have engaged in what is called "critical" writing, but
no conclusion is any more solidly established than it was in 1865. In the
first essay in the first Essays in Criticism we read that
"it has long seemed to me that the burst of creative activity in our
literature, through the first quarter of this century, had about it in fact
something premature; and that from this cause its productions are
doomed, most of them, in spite of the sanguine hopes which
accompanied and do still accompany them, to prove hardly more lasting
than the productions of far less splendid epochs. And this prematureness
comes from its having proceeded without having its proper data, without
sufficient material to work with. In other words, the English poetry of
the first quarter of this century, with plenty of energy, plenty of creative
force, did not know enough. This makes Byron so empty of matter,
Shelley so incoherent, Wordsworth even, profound as he is, yet so
wanting in completeness and variety." | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 102 | Author: | Eliot, T. S. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Possibility of a Poetic Drama | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE questions—why there is no poetic drama to-day, how the stage
has lost all hold on literary art, why so many poetic plays are
written which can only be read, and read, if at all, without
pleasure—have become insipid, almost academic. The usual
conclusion is either that "conditions" are too much for us, or that
we really prefer other types of literature, or simply that we are
uninspired. As for the last alternative, it is not to be
entertained; as for the second, what type do we prefer? and as for
the first, no one has ever shown me "conditions" except of the most
superficial. The reasons for raising the question again are first
that the majority, perhaps, certainly a large number, of poets
hanker for the stage; and second, that a not negligible public
appears to want verse plays. Surely here is some legitimate
craving, not restricted to a few persons, which only the verse play
can satisfy. And surely the critical attitude is to attempt to
analyse the conditions and the other data. If there comes to light
some conclusive obstacle, the investigation should at least help us
to turn our thoughts to more profitable pursuits; and if there is
not we may hope to arrive eventually at a statement of conditions
which might be altered. Possibly we shall find that our incapacity
has a deeper source: the arts have flourished at times when there
was no drama; possibly we are incompetent altogether; in that case
the stage will be not the seat, but at all events a symptom, of the
malady. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 103 | Author: | Far, Sui Sin | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Chan Hen Yen, Chinese Student | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | HE was Han Yen of the family of Chan, from the town of Choo-Chow,
in the Province of Kiangsoo. His father was a schoolmaster, so also had
been his grandfather, and his great grandfather before him. He was
chosen out of three sons to be the scholar of the family, and during his
boyhood studied diligently and with ambition. From school to college he
passed, and at the age of twenty, took successfully the examinations
which entitled him to a western education at government expense. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 105 | Author: | Ford, Mary K. | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Woman's Progress a Comparison of Centuries | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | Ornamental T — men reading THE participation of Mrs. Taft and Mrs. Sherman in the Inauguration
Procession at Washington on the 4th of March, and the fact of their doing so
without provoking any adverse criticism, is a comment upon the position that
women are now taking in public affairs. And yet this state of things has come
about so gradually, it seems so natural that women should be keenly interested in
public as well as domestic questions, that it is hard to realise that not so very long
ago the interests of men and women and all that concerned their mental needs were
considered to have nothing whatever in common. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 112 | Author: | Glaspell, Susan, 1882-1948 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | In the Face of His Constituents. | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | SENATOR HARRISON concluded his argument and sat down. There was no
applause, but he had expected none. Senator Dorman was already
saying “Mr. President?” and there was a stir in the crowded
galleries, and an anticipatory moving of chairs among the Senators.
In the press gallery the reporters bunched together their scattered
papers and inspected their pencil-points with earnestness. Dorman
was the last speaker of the Senate, and he was on the popular side
of it. It would be the great speech of the session, and the
prospect was cheering after a deluge of railroad and insurance
bills. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 114 | Author: | Glasgow, Ellen | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Shadowy Third | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | I saw her lift her little arms, and I saw the mother stoop and
gather her to her bosom.
A drawing by
Elenore Plaisted Abbott. Standing by an open window, a woman wearing
a long grey shawl leans down toward a small girl whom she embraces
with her arms. The little girl has her arms wrapped around her
mother's waist, and leans back to look up into her mother's face.
There is a pot of daffodils on the windowsill.
Ornamental letter "W" which begins the text. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 119 | Author: | Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | The Gray Champion | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THERE was once a time when New England groaned under the actual
pressure of heavier wrongs than those threatened ones which brought
on
the Revolution. James II., the bigoted successor of Charles the
Voluptuous, had annulled the charters of all the colonies, and sent
a
harsh and
unprincipled soldier to take away our liberties and endanger our
religion.
The administration of Sir Edmund Andros lacked scarcely a single
characteristic of tyranny: a Governor and Council, holding office
from
the
King, and wholly independent of the country; laws made and taxes
levied without concurrence of the people immediate or by their
representatives; the rights of private citizens violated, and the
titles of
all landed
property declared void; the voice of complaint stifled by
restrictions on
the press; and, finally, disaffection overawed by the first band of
mercenary troops that ever marched on our free soil. For two years
our
ancestors were kept in sullen submission by that filial love which
had invariably secured their allegiance to the mother country,
whether
its head
chanced to be a Parliament, Protector, or Popish Monarch. Till
these evil
times, however, such allegiance had been merely nominal, and the
colonists had ruled themselves, enjoying far more freedom than is
even
yet the
privilege of the native subjects of Great Britain. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 120 | Author: | Headland, Isaac Taylor | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Court Life In China | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | ONE day when one of the princesses was
calling at our home in Peking, I
inquired of her where the Empress
Dowager was born. She gazed at me for a moment
with a queer expression wreathing her features,
as she finally said with just the faintest shadow
of a smile: "We never talk about the early
history of Her Majesty.'' I smiled in return and
continued: "I have been told that she was born
in a small house, in a narrow street inside of the
east gate of the Tartar city—the gate blown up
by the Japanese when they entered Peking in
1900.'' The princess nodded. "I have also
heard that her father's name was Chao, and that
he was a small military official (she nodded again)
who was afterwards beheaded for some neglect
of duty.'' To this the visitor also nodded assent. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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