Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Selected Essays
The Familiar Essayists, usually people Of schol arly tastes and seasoned wisdom, have been fond of allusion and illustration. They have loved to point an argument with an anecdote, and to press home a doctrine with a simile. But the knowledge displayed is never obtrusive or pedantic, for the Essay must always seem the brief and light result Of learning and meditation. It is beyond the essayist's prov ince to usurp the preacher's office or to play the part of tutor. He is quite content with a hint instead of a sermon, with a jest in place of a solemn maxim. He is well aware also that the slightest trace of conventionality or affectation or even of reticence will destroy the impression he wishes to produce.
This means, of course, that he is to be on intimate and natural terms with his audience. Assuming the confidential tone of unreserved conversation, the skillful essayist behaves to his readers as if he were betraying to them momentous secrets. Mon taigne, Lamb, Stevenson seem almost to be chatting at our very elbows, so frankly and innocently do they disclose their partialities and foibles, their little whims and weaknesses.
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