It is
he who hath no disposition or occasion for any kind of deceit, no
reason for being or for appearing different from what he is. It is
he who can call together the most select company when it pleases him.
.. . . . . . . . . Him I would call the powerful man who controls the
storms of his mind, and turns to good account the worst accidents of
his fortune. The great man, I was going on to show thee, is somewhat
more. He must be able to do this, and he must have that intellect
which puts into motion the intellect of others."
"All titulars else must be produced by others; a knight by a
knight, a peer by a King, while a gentleman is self-existent."
"Critics talk most about the _visible_ in sublimity . . the
Jupiter, the Neptune. Magnitude and power are sublime, but in the
second degree, managed as they may be. Where the heart is not
shaken, the gods thunder and stride in vain. True sublimity is the
perfection of the pathetic, which has other sources than pity;
generosity, for instance, and self-devotion. When the generous and
self-devoted man suffers, there comes Pity; the basis of the sublime
is then above the water, and the poet, with or without the gods, can
elevate it above the skies.
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