Thursday, November 18, 2010

Reading and Writing: "Q "

http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/images/people/arthur_quiller-couch.jpg

Arthur Quiller-Couch, but do not
pronounce it like a sofa!
~~ just call him Q.


“You are indeed the heirs of a remarkable legacy--a legacy that has passed into your hands after no little tumult and travail; a legacy that is the happy result of sacrificial human relations, no less than of stupendous human achievements; a legacy that demands of you a lifetime of vigilance and diligence so that you may in turn pass the fruits of Christian civilization on to succeeding generations. This is the essence of the biblical view, the covenantal view, and the classical view of education. This is the great legacy of truth which you are now the chief beneficiaries.”

Two books that he wrote on the
ART of Reading and the ART of
Writing that were lectures at
Cambridge in the early 1900's.
Both are online and worth doing
both: reading alongside with a
pen and a journal.


FROM THE ART OF READING:

The first promise is, that What Is, being the spiritual element in man, is the highest object of his study. 33
The second promise is that, nine-tenths of what is worthy to be called Literature being concerned with this spiritual element, for that it should be studied, from firstly up to ninthly, before anything else. 34
And my two quotations are for you to ponder: 35
(1) This, first:

That all spirit is mutually attractive, as all matter is mutually attractive, is an ultimate fact beyond which we cannot go…. Spirit to spirit—as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.
36
(2) And this other, from the writings of an obscure Welsh clergyman of the 17th century:

You will never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars

From THE ART OF WRITING:

Perspicuity.—I shall waste no words on the need of this: since the first aim of speech is to be understood. The more clearly you write the more easily and surely you will be understood. I propose to demonstrate to you further, in a minute or so, that the more clearly you write the more clearly you will understand yourself. But a sufficient reason has been given in ten words why you should desire perspicuity.



2 comments:

melissa said...

Oh, that's rich indeed. :)

Nancy Kelly said...

I've only read what H. Hanff has written about him, plus some isolated quotes. I need to read more.