Youth and Egolatry

Youth and Egolatry

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Youth and Egolatry, by Pio Baroja
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Title: Youth and Egolatry
Author: Pio Baroja
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8148] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 20, 2003]
Edition: 10
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Youth and Egolatry
By PIO BAROJA
Translated from the Spanish By Jacob S. Fassett, Jr. and Frances L.
Phillips

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION BY H. L. MENCKEN
PROLOGUE
ON INTELLECTUAL LOVE EGOTISM
I. FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS
The bad man of Itzea Humble and a wanderer Dogmatophagy
Ignoramus, Ignorabimus Nevertheless, we call ourselves materialists In
defense of religion Arch-European Dionysus or Apollonian Epicuri de
grege porcum Evil and Rousseau's Chinaman The root of disinterested
evil Music as a sedative Concerning Wagner Universal musicians The
folk song On the optimism of eunuchs
II. MYSELF, THE WRITER
To my readers thirty years hence Youthful writings The beginning and

end of the journey Mellowness and the critical sense Sensibility On
devouring one's own God Anarchism New paths Longing for change
Baroja, you will never amount to anything (A Refrain) The patriotism
of desire My home lands Cruelty and stupidity The anterior image The
tragi-comedy of sex The veils of the sexual life A little talk The
sovereign crowd The remedy
III. THE EXTRARADIUS
Rhetoric and anti-rhetoric The rhythm of style Rhetoric of the minor
key The value of my ideas Genius and admiration My literary and
artistic inclinations My library On being a gentleman Giving offence
Thirst for glory Elective antipathies To a member of several academies
IV. ADMIRATIONS AND INCOMPATIBILITIES
Cervantes, Shakespeare, Moliere The encyclopedists The romanticists
The naturalists The Spanish realists The Russians The critics
V. THE PHILOSOPHERS
VI. THE HISTORIANS
The Roman historians Modern and contemporary historians
VII. MY FAMILY
Family mythology Our History
VIII. MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD
San Sebastian My parents Monsignor Two lunatics The hawk In
Madrid In Pamplona Don Tirso Larequi A visionary rowdy Sarasate
Robinson Crusoe and the Mysterious Island
IX. AS A STUDENT
Professors Anti-militarism To Valencia

X. AS A VILLAGE DOCTOR
Dolores, La Sacristana
XI. AS A BAKER
My father's disillusionment Industry and democracy The vexations of a
small tradesman
XII. AS A WRITER
Bohemia Our own generation Azorin Paul Schmitz Ortega y Gasset A
pseudo-patron
XIII. PARISIAN DAYS
Estevanez My versatility according to Bonafoux
XIV. LITERARY ENMITIES
The enmity of Dicenta The posthumous enmity of Sawa Semi-hatred
on the part of Silverio Lanza
XV. THE PRESS
Our newspapers and periodicals Our journalists Americans
XVI. POLITICS
Votes and applause Politicians Revolutionists Lerroux An offer
Socialists Love of the workingman The conventionalist Barriovero
Anarchists The morality of the alternating party system On obeying the
law The sternness of the law
XVII. MILITARY GLORY
The old-time soldier Down goes prestige Science and the picturesque
What we need today Our armies A word from Kuroki, the Japanese

EPILOGUE Palinode and fresh outburst of ire
APPENDICES Spanish politicians On Baroja's anarchists Note

INTRODUCTION
Pio Baroja is a product of the intellectual reign of terror that went on in
Spain after the catastrophe of 1898. That catastrophe, of course, was
anything but unforeseen. The national literature, for a good many years
before the event, had been made dismal by the croaking of Iokanaans,
and there was a definite defaitiste party among the intelligentsia. But
among the people in general, if there was not optimism, there was at
least a sort of resigned indifference, and so things went ahead in the old
stupid Spanish way and the structure of society, despite a few gestures
of liberalism, remained as it had been for generations. In Spain, of
course, there is always a Kulturkampf, as there is in Italy, but during
these years it was quiescent. The Church, in the shadow