"I have indeed lived nominally fifty years, but deduct out of them the hours which I have lived to other people, and not to myself, and you will find me still a young fellow. For that is the only true Time, which a man can properly call his own - that which he has all to himself; the rest, though in some sense he may be said to live it, is other people's Time, not his.”
- The Superannuated Man, by Charles Lamb
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Vs. A.I.
In his "On Epic Poetry", Pope satirises the proliferation of bad epic poetry, written not by poets with "genius", but by hacks according to a "recipe" in which they take themes and episodes from the great works of literature, "stack them up" and pour out verbiage void of any true human meaning, moral or value. ???
My reading of this essay was enhanced by it sounding in my mind as narrated by Simon Callow ?
I'm about ¼ through this essay collection, having just finished the selections by Joseph Addison (1672-1719), which I've really enjoyed.
He was co-founder of The Spectator magazine, the title of which was borrowed by a still-extant conservative periodical, which is ironic given that Addison's satirical essay, "The Tory Fox-Hunter" lampoons the Little Englander mentality that still prevails amongst current Spectator & Daily Mail reading folk. ⬇️
#WeirdWords Squir or Squirr: "To throw with a jerking motion; to skim".
A spendthrift heir being disinherited & bequeathed only a silver shilling, "put him into such a passion, that having taken me in his hand, and cursed me, he squirred me away from him as far as he could fling me."
From Addison's, "The Adventures of a Shilling", in which an Elizabeth I coin recounts its travels from Peru as part of Drake's plunder, to its minting & circulation.
"The soul of man is not by its own nature or observation furnished with sufficient materials to work upon; it is necessary for it to have continual resource to learning & books for fresh supplies, so that the solitary life will grow indigent, & be ready to starve without them; but if once we be thoroughly engaged in the love of letters, instead of being wearied with the length of any day, we shall only complain of the shortness of our whole life."
"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention." ?
- Of Studies, Sir Francis Bacon
"When a traveller returneth home...let his travel appear rather in his discourse than in his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers, than forward to tell stories; and let it appear that he doth not change his country manners for those of foreign parts; but only prick in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own country."
- Francis Bacon, "Of Travel"
“Let a man beware how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.”
Good advice from Sir Francis Bacon, from his essay, "Of Travel", from this 1935 edition of a collection of English essays, originally compiled in 1903.
I bought it today on a visit to a National Trust property, where some pretty spring crocuses were blooming amongst last autumn's fallen leaves, dipped into it, and ?
Selected English essays; | 
