文档介绍：LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS
LETTERS TO DEAD
AUTHORS
By Andrew Lang
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LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS
PREFACE
Sixteen of these Letters, which were written at the suggestion of the
Editor of the "St. James's Gazette," appeared in that journal, from which
they are now reprinted, by the Editor's kind permission. They have been
somewhat emended, and a few additions have been made. The Letters to
Horace, Byron, Isaak Walton, Chapelain, Ronsard, and Theocritus have
not been published before.
The gem on the title-page, now engraved for the first time, is a red
cornelian in the British Museum, probably Graeco-Roman, and treated in
an archaistic style. It represents Hermes Psychagogos, with a Soul, and
has some likeness to the Baptism of Our Lord, as usually shown in art.
Perhaps it may be post-Christian. The gem was selected by Mr. A. S.
Murray.
It is, perhaps, superfluous to add that some of the Letters are written
rather to suit the Correspondent than to express the writer's own taste or
opinions. The Epistle to Lord Byron, especially, is "writ in a manner
which is my aversion."
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LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS
LETTER--To W. M. Thackeray
Sir,--There are many things that stand in the way of the critic when he
has a mind to praise the living. He may dread the charge of writing
rather to vex a rival than to exalt the subject of his applause. He shuns
the appearance of seeking the favour of the famous, and would not
willingly be regarded as one of the many parasites who now advertise each
movement and action of contemporary genius. "Such and such men of
letters are passing their summer holidays in the Val d'Aosta," or the
Mountains of the Moon, or the Suliman Range, as it may happen. So
reports our literary "Court Circular," and all our Precieuses read the tidings
with enthusiasm. Lastly, if the critic be quite new to the world of letters,
he may superfluously fear to vex a poet or a novelist by the abundance of
his eulogy. No such doubts perplex us