The Essays and the Essayist

Introductory

The Dog and the Shadow

The Dying Lion

The Mountain in Labour

Hercules and the Waggoner

The Frogs that Asked for a King

The Gnat and the Lion

The Wolf and the Stork

The Frog who Wanted to Be as Big as an Ox

The Dog in the Manger

The Bundle of Faggots

The Fox Without a Tail

The Blind Man and the Paralytic

I.—Creative Power and Critical Power

II.—The Literary "Atmosphere"

III.—The Virtue of Detachment

IV.—Should We Have an Academy?

V.—Our Loss Through Provinciality

VI.—Some Illustrative Criticisms

The Man and the Book

I.—The Emigrant Literature

II.—The Romantic School in Germany

III.—The Reaction in France

IV.—Naturalism in England

V.—The Romantic School in France

VI.—Young Germany

I.—Democritus Junior to the Reader

II.—The Causes of Melancholy

III.—The Cure of Melancholy

IV.—Love-Melancholy

I.—The Hero as Divinity

II.—The Hero as Prophet

III.—The Hero as Poet

IV.—The Hero as Priest

V.—The Hero as Man of Letters

VI.—The Hero as King

II.—Biography of Teufelsdröckh

III.—The Volume on Clothes

A Dialogue

I.—To a Youth

II.—To a Young Man

III.—To a Lover

IV.—To a Husband

V.—To a Father

VI.—To the Citizen

I.—A Stricken City

II.—How the Dead Were Buried

III.—Universal Desolation

I.—"Men of Athens, Arouse Yourselves!"

II.—Beware the Guile of Philip

III.—Athens Must Head the War

IV.—Exterminate the Traitors!

I.—The Anchorage of Britain

II.—Racial Characteristics

III.—Wealth, Aristocracy, and Religion

Plato

Montaigne

Shakespeare

Napoleon

Goethe

Concerning Men, Manners and Things

I.—Stultitia's Declamation

II.—The Mockery of Wisdom

III.—Classification of Fools

IV.—On Princes and Pontiffs

I.—Of Love

II.—Of Fidelity

III.—O Venial Sin

IV.—Of the End of Sinners

V.—Of Too Much Pride

VI.—Of Avarice

VII.—Of Temporary Tribulation

The Troubles of the Great FROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI TO FUM HOAM, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE CEREMONIAL ACADEMY AT PEKIN

The Folly of the Recluse FROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI TO HINGPO, HIS SON

On Mad Dogs FROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI TO FUM HOAM

On Elections FROM LIEN CHI ALTANGI TO FUM HOAM

Opinions and Anecdotes

I.—Before the Fifteenth Century

II.—The Fifteenth Century

III.—The Sixteenth Century (1500–1550)

IV.—The Sixteenth Century (1550–1600)

V.—The Seventeenth Century (1600–1650)

VI.—The Seventeenth Century (1650–1700)

What Is Poetry?

Chaucer and Spenser

Shakespeare and Milton

Dryden and Pope

Thomson and Cowper

Robert Burns

Some Contemporary Poets

Every Man His Own Boswell

The Ageing of Ideas

The Confusion of Personality

More on Books

Dual Consciousness

The Race of Life

Sensibility and Scholarship

A Growing Romance

Nature's Patient Advance

The Long Path

I.—On Men and Books

II.—On Women and Wealth

III.—On Men and Manners

IV.—On Customs and Religion

I.—Peter the Great and Alexis

II.—Joseph Scaliger and Montaigne

III.—Bossuet and the Duchesse de Fontanges

IV.—The Empress Catharine and Princess Dashkof

V.—Bacon and Richard Hooker

I.—Of Love and of Women

II.—Friendship

III.—Things of the Mind

IV.—Human Life and Human Nature

V.—Virtues and Vices

From Da Vinci's Notebooks

How Sculpture is Less Intellectual

Of the Ten Offices of the Eye

Rule for Beginners in Painting

Precepts for Painting

On the Choice of Light

Of the Gesture of Figures

The Judgment of Painting

Do Not Disdain to Work from Nature

Of the Painter's Life in His Study

Of Ways to Represent Various Scenes

To Learn to Work from Memory

On Studying in Bed

I.—On the Limits of Painting and Poetry

II.—The Poet

III.—Beauty and Charm

I.—Liberty of Thought and Discussion

II.—Individuality as One of the Elements of Well-Being

III.—The Limits of the Authority of Society Over the Individual

I.—The Right of Appeal

II.—The History of Repression

III.—The Futility of Prohibition

IV.—An Indignity to Learning

I.—Lycurgus and Numa

II.—Aristides and Cato

III.—Demosthenes and Cicero

I.—Germany, Its People and Customs

II.—On Southern Germany and Austria

III.—On the German Language

IV.—Prussia

I.—Germany and the German Tribes

II.—Customs of Government and War

III.—Domestic Customs of the Germans

IV.—Tribes of the West and North

V.—The Great Nation of the Suevi

VI.—The Tribes of the Frontier

Saxon and Norman

Chaucer

The Renaissance

Spenser

The Theatre

Shakespeare

The Christian Renaissance

Milton

The Modern Spirit

The Simple Life

Ideals

House Building

Farming

Earning a Living

The Life with Nature

Reading

In the Sun

Night Sounds

Visitors

Interference

Exhausted Experience

I.—Equality

II.—Religion and Liberty

III.—Omnipotence of the Majority

IV.—Equality of Men and Women

V.—The Perfectibility of Man

VI.—American Vanity

The Virtues of Angling

Master and Pupil

Fish of English Streams

Walking Homewards