Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Self-Indulgence
Norman Douglas (1868-1952), Alone (New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, 1922), pp. 42-43:
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Self-indulgence, I thought. Heavily-fraught is that word; weighted with meaning. The history of two thousand years of spiritual dyspepsia lies embedded in its four syllables. Self-indulgence—it is what the ancients blithely called "indulging one's genius." Self-indulgence! How debased an expression, nowadays. What a text for a sermon on the mishaps of good words and good things. How all the glad warmth and innocence have faded out of the phrase. What a change has crept over us...
