“I
have often amused myself with thinking how different a place London is
to different people. They, whose narrow minds are contracted to the
consideration of some particular pursuit, view it only through that medium. A
politician thinks of it merely as the seat of government in its different
departments ; a grazier, as a vast market for cattle ; a mercantile man, as a place
where a prodigious deal of business is done upon 'Change ; a dramatick
enthusiast, as the grand scene of theatrical entertainments ; a man of
pleasure, as an assemblage of taverns, and the great emporium for ladies of
easy virtue. But the intellectual man is struck with it, as comprehending the
whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of
which is inexhaustible.”
Friday, October 26, 2012
`The Whole of Human Life in All Its Variety'
Jacques
Barzun, who happily for us lived a preternaturally long and productive life,
has died in San Antonio at age 104. My favorites among his many books are
probably God's Country and Mine: A
Declaration of Love, Spiced with a Few Harsh Words (1954) and A Stroll with William James (1983),
though I might come up with a fresh list tomorrow. At the end of the latter
volume, Barzun appends an “Epilogue-Anthology,” a commonplace book of
quotations from James’ precursors, some of his “predecessors in the Great
Conversation.” Among them is an extract from a conversation Dr. Johnson had on
July 5, 1763, as reported by Boswell:
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