Essays of To-Day by Francis Henry Pritchard

Excerpt from Essays of to-Day: But thoughts do not always pass with such calm ease through the writer's mind. Sometimes they burn with a white and passionate heat that, by reason of its very intensity, makes expression more difficult. We are all conscious of such thoughts, but with most of us they are accompanied by a feeling of utter incompetence and incoherence. The commonplaces of life we can utter, but these rare and burning ideas find us dumb. We cannot express them even to ourselves, and so they pass. But here and there is one to whom is given the incommunicable gift of controlling and marshalling such thoughts so as to give them coherent and glorious expression in measured speech. Ordered by the strict limitations of rhythm, and obedient to the recurrences of rime and metre, the unruly ideas are fashioned into a lyric, just as scattered particles, straying here and there, are drawn together and fused into crystalline beauty. The difference, indeed, is one of temperature. The metal bar, cold or lukewarm, will do anywhere, but heat it to melting-point and you must confine it within the rigid limits of the mould or see it at length but an amorphous splash at your feet. This 1926 Harrap Hardback is in fair condition. No dust jacket. Green cloth cover is aged and spotted. Note on page one from previous owner, dated 1931. Top right corner of page one has worn through. Inner pages are lightly spotted, otherwise good condition considering the age of the book.

SKU: 1564718 This image is of the actual book.

Location: Non Fiction