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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: writing a prose which for precision, purity, and dignity has
never since been surpassed. It is thus that the unapproachable
literary excellence of ancient Greek books speaks for the genuine
culture of the people who were expected to read them, or to hear
them read. For one of the surest indices of true culture, whether
professedly literary or not, is the power to express one's self
in precise, rhythmical, and dignified language. We hardly need a
better evidence than this of the superiority of the ancient
community in the general elevation of its tastes and perceptions.
Recollecting how Herodotos read his history at the Olympic games,
let us try to imagine even so picturesque a writer as Mr. Parkman
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
