[We] must prepare ourselves for gross ignorance, some meanness of opinions, and very distressing vulgarity of manner...A quotation of wide application. It could be said, for example, by a teacher anticipating the first day of school, or by anyone facing an upcoming family reunion.
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Sunday, May 18, 2014
Be Prepared
Jane Austen (1775-1817), Mansfield Park, chapter I (Sir Thomas Bertram speaking):