Volume 1

William Whewell, D.D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge : an account of his writings with selections from his literary and scientific correspondence / by I. Todhunter.

  • Isaac Todhunter
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: William Whewell, D.D., Master of Trinity College, Cambridge : an account of his writings with selections from his literary and scientific correspondence / by I. Todhunter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    384/456 (page 348)
    RIMINI. perpetual leaving out of old and taking in of new substance. Perhaps it reminds us too strongly that transitory as are the forms and materials of the external world, our sensations and reflections which are the materials of happiness are at least as transitory. I would willingly be much more than I am indebted to my former intellectual habits for my present enjoyments— but alas! it may not be ; the blossom must wither as the fruit ripens. Obs. Some of these identities are much more agreeable and much more valuable than others. It might be worth while to examine which and what are the means of netting in to them. Edinburgh Review of Swift, No. 53. The credit of the writers of Queen Anne’s age is attacked—that is while credit is allowed them for their polish and elegance they are denied the praise of all the higher qualities of poetry—its enthusiasm—its feeling—its sublimity. This is a review which must produce a strong effect upon public taste—precisely because it comes to tell people what they already begin to know or rather to feel—to embody in words and to arrange in a consistent theory the perception of unsatisfac- toriness and even of weariness which every body must have begun to feel in reading and considering the writings of that age—the craving after more powerful passion—more sweeping interest than those productions can exhibit. The review will produce its effect because jieople are ready for it. It is not indeed the first display of such opinions we have had—but it is the first from a judicious and disinterested quarter. All the other opponents have tried to talk down that taste because they had something to set up in its place. Their extravagancies indicate that a change is taking- place in the national taste. They are the straws whose whirling shews that the stream is turning. [Compare the remarks on Locke, Philosophy of Discovery, page 202.] Rimini. There is no standing out against this poem—in spite of affectation and vulgarity the truth and nature and vivid- ness of the poetry compel admiration—love. There are hundreds of words and phrases which insulated are ridiculous and disgust- ing but iu reading the poem they arc what one would scarcely