Tales Of A Traveller, By Washington Irving

















































































































 -  It
may be resembled to the firmament, consisting of a number of systems,
each composed of its own central sun - Page 108
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It May Be Resembled To The Firmament, Consisting Of A Number Of Systems, Each Composed Of Its Own Central Sun With Its Revolving Train Of Moons And Satellites, All Acting In The Most Harmonious Concord; But The Comparison Fails In Part, Inasmuch As The Literary World Has No General Concord.

Each system acts independently of the rest, and indeed considers all other stars as mere exhalations and transient meteors,

Beaming for awhile with false fires, but doomed soon to fall and be forgotten; while its own luminaries are the lights of the universe, destined to increase in splendor and to shine steadily on to immortality."

"And pray," said I, "how is a man to get a peep into one of these systems you talk of? I presume an intercourse with authors is a kind of intellectual exchange, where one must bring his commodities to barter, and always give a quid pro quo."

"Pooh, pooh - how you mistake," said Buckthorne, smiling; "you must never think to become popular among wits by shining. They go into society to shine themselves, not to admire the brilliancy of others. I thought as you do when I first cultivated the society of men of letters, and never went to a blue-stocking coterie without studying my part beforehand as diligently as an actor. The consequence was, I soon got the name of an intolerable proser, and should in a little while have been completely excommunicated had I not changed my plan of operations. From thenceforth I became a most assiduous listener, or if ever I were eloquent, it was tete-a-tete with an author in praise of his own works, or what is nearly as acceptable, in disparagement of the works of his contemporaries.

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