Download or read book Literary and Social Silhouettes (Classic Reprint) written by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-01-10 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Literary and Social Silhouettes This is, as all will admit, an unpoetical theory, and a revolting one to a chival rous mind. I, therefore, purposely shield myself behind the great name of Herbert Spencer in reproducing it. Though I do not vouch for it as true, I hold it to be not improbable. A number of unpleasant things will be found in the ancestry of every one of us, if we pursue our researches far enough back; but, in my Opinion, they redound to our credit, rather than the con trary, if we convert them into something useful and agreeable. When we consider what malodorous things may have been distilled into the fragrance of the rose and the lily, it is scarcely worth while to regret a remote grandmother's mendacity which in the granddaughter is evaporat ed into an archness and witchery, lending charm to her speech and a more exquisite flavor to her personality. I feel in such a case positively grateful to the grand mother for having hoodwinked her lord, and do not question the ability of the fair descendant to do the same, though with out coming into conflict with a single commandment of the Decalogue. The blunt command, Thou shalt not, was, I suspect, meant for men rather than for women; for I have known some highly developed members of the sex who have been able to wind in and out among the ten fatal prohibitions, coming dangerous ly near some of them, but without getting entangled in any. There is to them a rare pleasure in this hazardous play which again hints at an inherited com plexity of character, never wholly com prehensible to men. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.