The humour of Ireland, selected with intr. and notes by D.J. O'Donoghue

The humour of Ireland, selected with intr. and notes by D.J. O'Donoghue
Title The humour of Ireland, selected with intr. and notes by D.J. O'Donoghue PDF eBook
Author David James O'Donoghue
Publisher
Pages 470
Release 1894
Genre
ISBN

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The Humour of Ireland

The Humour of Ireland
Title The Humour of Ireland PDF eBook
Author David James O'Donoghue
Publisher
Pages 472
Release 1896
Genre Irish wit and humor
ISBN

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The Humour of Holland

The Humour of Holland
Title The Humour of Holland PDF eBook
Author Anonymous
Publisher Library of Alexandria
Pages 592
Release
Genre Fiction
ISBN 1465562753

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There appears to be an idea abroad to the effect that the “Humour of Holland” could be most satisfactorily dealt with in a chapter resembling the famous one “Of Snakes in Ireland.” As the average English reader, in the most favourable instances, knows little more of Dutch literature than a name or two (Rembrandt has introduced us to “the poet Vondel,” and if Southey were not so little read in these days Bilderdijk and Cats would not be so unfamiliar), the subject offers a free field to the constructive imagination. Yet even so, one would think it must be obvious that the nation which has produced a Teniers, a Jan Steen, and—in some of his moods—a Rembrandt, could not be entirely destitute of humour. The estimate of its quality may be a question of taste; but—though many people practically do adopt this form of logic—we cannot make the fact of our not finding it to our liking a ground for denying its existence. Of course, before determining what the humour of a nation is like, we need to know what is that nation’s intellectual bent as a whole, and what forces have been at work to determine its character. On this point we may quote a paragraph or two from a Dutch writer, J. H. Hooijer, whom we shall meet again in the course of these pages. He is describing a village in North Holland, in the heart of the fat meadow-lands, famous for the production of Dutch cheeses. “The same village which you find so depressing this November day,—so damp, so clammy, so dripping with water,—makes a very different impression when Spring, with full hands, has showered her blossom-snow over the orchards, or in the autumn, when the trees are hanging full of golden pears or rosy apples. Greener meadow-land is nowhere on earth, unless it be in the Emerald Isle itself. The rich green pastures have velvety lights in the sunshine, and the splendid cattle—their dappled skins smooth and shining as silk—show out to advantage against it—colour on colour. At such times there is a glow of colour in the whole landscape, which, strange as it may sound, reminds one of the South,—a glow one might almost think was stolen from the palettes of the Old Masters. Every breath you draw is perfumed with new milk and flowers, mingled with the salt smell of the sea. There is a fulness of outward life—a bubbling up and overflowing of vital juices,—for which they had an eye and a heart, those great old realists. The man who despises a rich clover pasture, speckled here and there with white-fleeced sheep; who cannot spare a look for the magnificent horned cattle that stand staring at you, with dreamy, half-sad gaze, over the fence, while Geertje’s black eyes flash at you from behind the milking-pail,—well, he need not come to North Holland. Intellects of this sort, exclusively devoted to the contemplation of the sublime, will find everything ugly in these parts. To such an one our Old Masters have nothing to say; for him, Paul Potter’s art is a mere waste of time, and many a racy bit of Vondel trivial nonsense. Happily the cheery sun is of another mind, and his smile falls well-pleased on the endless emerald plain. He nurses it, feeds it, warms it,—he sweetens the blades of grass for the palate of the pampered cow. And sometimes, just before setting, he draws along the horizon, with purple finger, broad streaks of crimson fire, and then the dykes flame out like ruby bands winding over the green velvet robe of the earth, and you wish for the power of wielding the brush, so as to throw on canvas what one might almost call these brutal effects of colour.”

Physiognomy and Expression

Physiognomy and Expression
Title Physiognomy and Expression PDF eBook
Author Paolo Mantegazza
Publisher
Pages 362
Release 1914
Genre Emotions
ISBN

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Morals

Morals
Title Morals PDF eBook
Author Guillaume L. Duprat
Publisher
Pages 422
Release 1903
Genre Ethics, Evolutionary
ISBN

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Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt
Title Peer Gynt PDF eBook
Author Henrik Ibsen
Publisher
Pages 340
Release 1904
Genre
ISBN

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Evolution in Art

Evolution in Art
Title Evolution in Art PDF eBook
Author Alfred Cort Haddon
Publisher
Pages 832
Release 1907
Genre Art
ISBN

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