Literary Character of Men of Genius

Literary Character of Men of
Genius

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Isaac Disraeli, Edited by Benjamin Disraeli
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Title: Literary Character of Men of Genius Drawn from Their Own
Feelings and Confessions
Author: Isaac Disraeli
Editor: Benjamin Disraeli
Release Date: May 31, 2005 [eBook #15960]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CHARACTER OF MEN OF GENIUS***
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Editorial note: Due to limitations in rendering some print characters,
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"f^o" for "folio"

LITERARY CHARACTER OF MEN OF GENIUS
Drawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions
by
ISAAC DISRAELI
A New Edition Edited by His Son THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD.
London: Frederick Warne and Co., Bedford Street, Strand. London:
Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., Printers, Whitefriars.
1850

PREFACE.
The following Preface is of interest for the expression of the author's
own view of these works.
This volume comprises my writings on subjects chiefly of our
vernacular literature. Now collected together, they offer an unity of
design, and afford to the general reader and to the student of classical
antiquity some initiation into our national Literature. It is presumed
also, that they present materials for thinking not solely on literary
topics; authors and books are not alone here treated of,--a
comprehensive view of human nature necessarily enters into the subject
from the diversity of the characters portrayed, through the gradations of
their faculties, the influence of their tastes, and those incidents of their

lives prompted by their fortunes or their passions. This present volume,
with its brother "CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE," now constitute a
body of reading which may awaken knowledge in minds only seeking
amusement, and refresh the deeper studies of the learned by matters not
unworthy of their curiosity.
The LITERARY CHARACTER has been an old favourite with many
of my contemporaries departed or now living, who have found it
respond to their own emotions.
THE MISCELLANIES are literary amenities, should they be found to
deserve the title, constructed on that principle early adopted by me, of
interspersing facts with speculation.
THE INQUIRY INTO THE LITERARY AND POLITICAL
CHARACTER OF JAMES THE FIRST has surely corrected some
general misconceptions, and thrown light on some obscure points in the
history of that anomalous personage. It is a satisfaction to me to
observe, since the publication of this tract, that while some competent
judges have considered the "evidence irresistible," a material change
has occurred in the tone of most writers. The subject presented an
occasion to exhibit a minute picture of that age of transition in our
national history.
The titles of CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS and QUARRELS OF
AUTHORS do not wholly designate the works, which include a
considerable portion of literary history.
Public favour has encouraged the republication of these various works,
which often referred to, have long been difficult to procure. It has been
deferred from time to time with the intention of giving the subjects a
more enlarged investigation; but I have delayed the task till it cannot be
performed. One of the Calamities of Authors falls to my lot, the
delicate organ of vision with me has suffered a singular disorder,[A]--a
disorder which no oculist by his touch can heal, and no physician by his
experience can expound; so much remains concerning the frame of man
unrevealed to man!

In the midst of my library I am as it were distant from it. My unfinished
labours, frustrated designs, remain paralysed. In a joyous heat I wander
no longer through the wide circuit before me. The "strucken deer" has
the sad privilege to weep when he lies down, perhaps no more to course
amid those far-distant woods where once he sought to range.
[Footnote A: I record my literary calamity as a warning to my
sedentary brothers. When my eyes dwell on any object, or whenever
they are closed, there appear on a bluish film a number of mathematical
squares, which are the reflection of the fine network of the retina,
succeeded by blotches which subside into printed characters, apparently
forming distinct words, arranged in straight lines as in a printed book;
the monosyllables are often legible. This is the process of a few
seconds. It is remarkable that the usual power of the eye is not injured
or diminished for distant objects, while those near are clouded over.]
Although thus