The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter 5th November 2003 Part 2
eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Since 1971
In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Monthly newsletter:
1) Editorial
2) News
3) Radio Gutenberg update
4) Mailing list information
Hello,
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2) News
Project Gutenberg hits 10,000 etexts
After 31 years of purely volunteer effort Project Gutenberg hit 10,000
etexts in mid October. The document in question is Magna Carta,
regarded as the cornerstone of the English legal system and law, and
the chief defence against unjust rule by monarchs. In fact, it
contains very few sweeping statements of principle, but is a series of
concessions by King John to English barons in 1215. What Magna Carta
does do is to estabilisha significant constitutional principle, namely
that the power of the monarch could be limited by a written grant.
-------------------
Other news items this week
Changes have been proposed to copyright law in Australia that could
see removal of many texts now available through Project Gutenberg of
Australia. Find out more at the newsletter website.
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Amazon has launched a new text search facility on their website. You
may remember that we ran a small article about this in the newsletter
a few months ago. Amazon has not joined up with Project Gutenberg, but
has taken a different route by scanning texts themselves. You can find
out more about this on the newsletter website.
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Newsletter website
Updates galore this week, stories being added some of the time. Check out
the indepth analysis of the Australian copyright extension saga, and
read up on some of the features we have carried in the newsletter.
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PG/DP Shop
That's all I'm saying, watch this space for more details and start
saving those monetary units.
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New Project Gutenberg Mirror
Shiraz, Iran is the site of the latest Project Gutenberg mirror. You
can find ftp://dlib.eramisp.com/gut
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3) Radio Gutenberg Update
http://www.radio-gutenberg.org
Two channels of broadcasting are available, but what for the subtle
change in the web address, that's org not com.
channel 1 - Sherlock Holmes "The Sign of Four"
channel 2 - Robert Sheckley's "Bad Medicine"
Both are high quality live readings from the collection.
Jon and I are working on a new service for Project Gutenberg
to create an audio book on demand from any of the 10,000+
books in the collection. This service will be available at
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Anyone needing an audio book of a gutenberg book will be able to
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for it.
We may ask for testers sometime in November.
Mike E
-------------------
Distributed Proofreaders Update
This is a historically significant week for Distributed
Proofreaders. You may not be aware of this yet for it was not covered
on the BBC or CNN, nor was it picked up by any of the major daily
papers. Consider it a PG Newsletter exclusive. In fact, so important
is this week that the mid-section is going out in an extended Late
Edition.
Now before you go wondering what you might have missed, remember we
did say it was a 'historic' week. To behold the full majesty of
significance surrounding us at present requires that we step back a
little and attempt to view as much of the DP time line as
possible. Okay, so maybe just the past year for now!
A new era has definitely begun for Distributed Proofreaders. This was
not planned to be a demarcation, but a clear one has settled in right
before our eyes. If you are a daily visitor to the site, it is likely
that you felt the sea change moving in over the past several weeks. If
this is includes you, then please stay with us as we explore the past
twelve months for those who are occasional visitors or recently joined
members.
Before the beginning, let us set a marker in the present, for that is
where we will circle back to. It is a landmark impossible to miss;
last Friday's Halloween celebration and the collaborative 'Big Climb.'
In last week's column we gave everyone ample notice, and it was clear
from the line at the door that the word went out. I must say, the
party wasted no time getting started. From Midnight on Thursday the
place started rockin', and it did not slow down until well past
Midnight on Saturday morning. I can't name for you everyone who was
there...they all wore masks...and some people switched every hour.
Appropriate content begin dancing through the rounds in pumpkin
colored costumes within minutes of the witching hour...there were
short stories by Bram Stoker and Alexandre Dumas, Curiosites
infernales were seen. The Centaur by Blackwood made an appearance as
did La vampire, who was still hangin' out in R2 last night refusing to
believe the party's over. Juliet went home with the prize for
'Scariest Book of All' for Diseases of the Horse's Foot. I'm still
having nightmares.
Thanks must go out to Dr. Gutenstein, and to all the content providers
and behind the scenes crafters who made the event as much fun as it
was. The highlight of all was the 'Big Climb.' If you missed it, you
have my sincere condolences, because it really was something to see!
There was a steady pace to the climb right from the start, but it did
not really get exciting until late in the afternoon, when we started
to see over 1,000 pages an hour being proofed. The existing high,
which is what we set out to surpass was over 15,000 pages proofed in a
single day. We entered the challenge in the spirt of the day with more
fun in mind than seriousness of purpose. After all, the highest
proofing day of 2003 was still less than 10,000 pages.
In the final six hours it became certain that we actually had a chance
to set a newrecord, and to go a good stretch beyond. The original
target for everyone was to match or slightly pass their own best
proofing day. With this in mind, people had committed to a set number
of pages they would complete for the day. Most everyone went beyond
their pledge, and many people doubled and tripled what they set out to
do. By the final three hours the pace had quickened and the 15,000
drew near, and then with just a passing wave, Oct 31st flew on by Nov
8th and rose another 3,000 pages, opening up a whole new era in DP
history. Friends and family members are still at a loss to explain the
behavior last Friday of the members who were on-line when the new
record was set. To stretch a worn out cliche that just happens to
fit. . .
You really had to be there!'
If you weren't with us, there's always the many forum threads from the
31st that will bring back a sense of what it was like. For those who
were a part of the climb, the memories will linger for a long time to
come. For those who have been members for more than a year, Friday
night rekindled existing memories of another day, and another mountain
of pages that were proofed by a small and enthusiastic band. That of
course, leads us back in time nearly a year to this day. The timing of
these two grand days was the inspiration for this special issue of the
column.
This upcoming weekend marks an important anniversary for DP. One year
ago on November 8th a small piece appeared among the daily discourse
on Slashdot. Within hours the ranks of registered proofers began to
grow...and grow...and grow. That day changed DP fundamentally like a
plot point in a classic novel.
November 8th is not an official holiday at Distributed Proofreaders,
but it should be. Not so much because of the large crowds that came
initially, nor the high page counts. It should be a day of reverence
for those members who came and saw and stayed. Next time you are in
the forum pay attention to the Date Joined beneath the poster's
name. Note how many arrived either on Nov' 8, 2002 or within the
following week to ten days.
Among this group you will find people who have contributed
immeasurably to DP, including two of our largest content providers, a
legion of high volume proofers, including some of the Top Ten, code
authors and site maintainers, nearly all the tool developers and even
our own SA Bill Keir. Whenever the story of DP is told, that Slashdot
November will always be remembered as a milestone in the project's
early history, yet not solely for the high count numbers to which it
is often anchored. The greatest contribution of November 2002 is the
quality and character of the people who came to stay and add something
uniquely their own to DP.
As we look back over the past year, it begins to seem that the greater
part of 2003 was spent adapting to new size and potential of the
membership. We have all been learning, growing and sharing ideas that
over time came materialized into concrete results. Through the
unfolding of that process we have managed to send over 1,500 completed
books to PG with an equal number at some stage on the DP server.
There were times in 2003 when we seemed to loose our forward momentum
and even begin to drift apart. But somehow something always came along
and drew us all back together; a mention by Slashdot in July, a
spontaneous run for a daily goal that reminded us that we were a
collective effort after all. Somewhere towards the third quarter of
the year we began to find ourselves together more often than
not. Within this same time frame several sub-projects and initiatives
that had been developing through the year began to take on more of a
concrete and unified form.
It is no longer possible to point to any few specifics and say 'that's
what made the difference', but the DP of today is very different than
the DP of six months ago. This transformation is measured by strong
increases in output and quality at all stages of production. What
brought about this deep change then, if not some particular event or
development? I have been thinking about this question a great deal in
the past week. From today, I believe it can be attributed to two
primary factors. The first is arguably the recent synchronization of
the many tools and technical innovations that have been evolving
through the past year. Space and time do not allow me to cite them
all...and individually they may not seem like much.
Together the improvements to the site code, the steady evolution to
the proofing process, such as the queue organization and enhancements
to the project release system, added to the impressive set of tools
now available to assist the pre and post production processes. All of
these have become integrated into an effective system within the past
few months.
The second primary cause, in my view, is a little less obvious, but of
an equal import. I believe that what we have come to possess in the
later part of this year is the collective sense of who we are in our
dedication to the work of DP. I have been reading and watching very
closely of late both in on-site and off-site exchanges. One thing
stands out very clearly, time and time again; this work, which is very
distinct to DP, has become a significant part of our lives. What we do
here, both as individuals and in collaboration, is held very high
amongst our personal values. We don't discuss this often in the forum,
except when a new member makes note of it, and then for a while we are
reminded of what keeps us coming back. Maybe the reason we don't
discuss it often is that we have come to accept this as a group. Once
we log in to DP we know we are among a kindred mind-set. We all know
why we are here, and it is widely recognized that the work we do is no
mere idle pastime. We believe it makesa difference in the world.
What has happened to us recently is that we have uncovered and
experienced a new found dynamism when we give ourselves collectively
to a specific end that we hold to be of significance. This is the true
service of the Daily Page goals; they call hidden strengths from our
inner depths and push us to always do better than we might just
normally settle for. They are more important than the playfullness
with which we approach them may evidence. Times will come when there
are urgent and maybe important needs that require us to reach up and
stretch on some short notice. By having found our sense of self as a
working group, we will not hesitate to take on such challenges, and we
will not fail to accomplish them. It is a faith based work ethic at
DP...the same is true for the larger PG community. The great
cathedrals rose up on the dedications to such an ethic. A world
library is rising up on this one.
So those are my theories on how we manage to average 6,500-7,000 pages
a day without breaking into a sweat, and how we can post process 325+
books in a month. Maybe what matters above any reason why is the fact
that we are doing it in the first place. We are nearing a new year
now. The holiday season will soon be upon us and there's no doubt that
we will all have some time away from DP while we enjoy the affairs of
our personal lives. It does seem to be good timing after all that has
been achieved in recent weeks. We will begin 2004 fresh, strong and
ready to complete the most challenging of projects.
PG has reached the long awaited milestone of 10,000 titles and new
horizons are nowfocused upon. DP is ready and fit for such new vistas
within this new and exciting era. If the past year revealed to us who
we are collectively, the year ahead seems ready to show us what we are
truly capable of. Perhaps the greatest lesson October taught us, is
that on this account, who we may yet become, we still have very much
to discover. I look forward to sharing the journey with you! I believe
many of us will be togetherfor a long while to come yet. As Big Bill
often says..."We have many years of work out there ahead of us." Let
give the best within ourselves to those years!
With this week's expanded column we are going to give you a taste of
some new features that will be appearing regularly. One of these is a
spotlight on unique and special DP accomplishments. Now there are no
hard rules here and there will be no judgmental limits applied. The
features will justify inclusion on their own. Now we will try to make
this a little surprising, so you may not actually be aware of the
nature of the 'accomplishment' until we focus upon it. That's the main
reason why we have decided to add this element. Maybe the motto here
could be 'credit where it is due, not where it is recognized.'
For the first feature we will start with something I am personally
very familiar with, and which you will be in the days and weeks to
come. It is called 'The Project Gutenberg John Keats Collection.' It
has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Expect several more authors to
receive such designation in the near future as we get to them. On the
whole, the framing of an authors entire catalog, once it is available,
is one component in the ongoing upgrade of the PG index. The Keats
Collection deserves special mention here because it is a purely DP
accomplishment. In fact, the entire Keats library; three volumes of
his verse; all of his letters and two very extensive biographies, was
located, scanned and prepared for DP by one person; Jonathan
Ingram. You most likely know him as Jon.
Earlier this year upon learning that the body of Keats' work was not
available in PG, Jon set out to right this imbalance with firm
determination. It would not be the last Romantic poet Mr. Ingram would
single handily escort to the PG library. Our Jon has managed the
entire works of Byron, Coleridge, Southey, Wordsworth, and many other
poets outside the Romantic era. Perhaps this is a good place to
mention that Jon joined up with DP on November 8, 2003.
I know a little bit about this collection because I adopted the entire
series for the post production phase. The logic behind that decision
was on one hand a gesture of respect to what Jon had done, and on the
other, an intention to see that the set of titles would be sent to PG
within a consistent style, along with some added features. These works
are near to completion now and will begin their passage to
Verification beginning this week. Once the set is completely available
in PG, we will remind you within the newsletter and there will be a
fixed link posted on the archive site alongwith PG Collection authors.
As part of this week's Featured Accomplishment we will be including
some samples from the Letters of John Keats and William Rossetti's
biography. These will be complimented with an author profile by our
own Gali Sirkis. For anyone who would still like to proof a little
Keats, watch for the upcoming French translation of Saint Agnes which
was just recently located and should be available just in time to join
the collection.
There is a lot of news within this week that I have not even touched
upon so far. It would be an injustice to attempt to squeeze it all in
effectively in this last paragraph or two. Next week, when the column
returns to normal size, I will explore some important day to day
developments that tend to serve as the glue which holds DP together
through all manner of weather.
One thing that deserves mention going into next week is that Tuesday
the 11th, which is recognized as Armistice Day or Veterans Day and by
other names elsewhere will be honored at DP by several content
providers who are preparing appropriate titles for the proofing
rounds. If you would like to contribute a book or two, please visit
the Content Providers forum or contact one of the System
Administrators. If you would like to contribute by proofing some
texts, all you need to do is log in at any time during the day or
night. A diverse selection of books will be available for release.
To everyone who joined up with DP in those first wild days of the
great Slashdot rush, a very Happy Anniversary!!
Thank you all for staying and helping to make Distributed Proofreaders what
it is today!
Until next week...
Thierry Alberto
-------------------
John Keats - a short biography
John Keats started his short life at the end of October 208 years ago
- the boy that has died at the age of 25 and who's name (often
combined by dash to Shelly) became a symbol for romantic poetry in
English. This was a life of quintessence - as for many romantics, who
can turn the statue to the living girl by the power of their
imagination and to die from the broken heart when she refuses their
love ... During these only 25 years he's got everything that we are
hardly gathering during our 80 - joys and sufferings in plenty,
without holding back. His poetic works are beautiful and reflect true
passion and real thoughts behind each word. This is the main point of
Keats (besides the his talant of course) - he is very honest even in
hesitation or self-doubts. Eliot wrote that Keats was not so big in
poetry as he was in epistolary genre (Eliot Ò. S. The Use of Poetry
and the Use of Criticism. Harvard Univ. Press, 1933, p. 91-93., it
might be right or wrong, however his letters, carefully saved by his
friends and relatives, have same touch of genius and honesty. On PG
besides selected poems you have Lamia - excellent parabola about the
role of imagination and physical joys in the life of real poet (Jan
2001 Lamia,by John Keats [Poetry/Poem] [John Keats #1][lamiaxxx.xxx]
2490) I didn't find Keats correspondense in GUTindex, however you can
read selected letters on http://englishhistory.net/keats/contents.html
and even may be submit it one day to the project.
Sweet romantic dreams to all of us!
Gali Sirkis
P.S. Keats was only one of many others famous poets that died at the
age when others are only starting. Which didn't prevent from him to
write brilliant and mature poetry. In the two-year-old hit of the
Broadway stages "The Proof" they were speaking about math - that
genius mathematical insights can be reached only in the youth. The
fruits of youth - poetry and math ... will be continued in the next
newsletter.
-------------------
Excerpt From:
LIFE OF JOHN KEATS.
BY WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI.
- 1887
Apart from his own special capability for poetry, Keats had a mind
both active and capacious. The depth, pregnancy, and incisiveness, of
many of the remarks in his letters, glancing along a considerable
range of subject-matter, are highly noticeable. If some one were to
take the pains of extracting and classifying them, he would do a good
service to readers. It does not appear, however, that Keats took much
interest in any kind of knowledge which could not be made applicable
or subservient to the purposes of poetry. Many will remember the
anecdote, proper to Haydon's "immortal dinner" (December 1817), of
Keats's joining with Charles Lamb in denouncing Sir Isaac Newton for
having destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to the
prismatic colours; the whole company had to drink "Newton's health,
and confusion to mathematics." This was a freak, yet not so mere a
freak but that the poet--in one of his most elaborated and heedful
compositions, "Lamia"--couldrevert to the same idea--
"Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture--she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air and gnom=E8d mine,
Unweave a rainbow."
In a letter to his brother, December 1817, Keats observes:--
"The excellence of every art is its intensity, capable of making all
disagreeables evaporate from their being in close relationship with
beauty and truth. Examine 'King Lear,' and you will find his
exemplified throughout.... It struck me what quality went to form a
man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare
possessed so enormously. I mean negative capability; that is, when a
man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without
any irritable reaching after fact and reason. Coleridge, for instance,
would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the
penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with
half-knowledge. This, pursued through volumes, would perhaps take us
no further than this: that with a great poet the sense of beauty
overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all
consideration."
Keats did not very often in his letters remark upon the work of his
poetic contemporaries. We have just read a reference to Coleridge. In
another letter addressed to Haydon, January 1818, he shows that his
admiration of Wordsworth's "Excursion" was great, coupling that poem
with Haydon's pictures, and with "Hazlitt's depth of taste," as "three
things to rejoice at in this age."
Soon afterwards, February 1818, while "Endymion" was passing through
the press, he wrote to Mr. Taylor:--
"In poetry I have a few axioms, and you will see how far I am from
their centre. 1st, I think poetry should surprise by a fine excess,
and not by singularity; it should strike the reader as a wording of
his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance. 2nd, Its
touches of beauty should never be half-way, thereby making the reader
breathless instead of content. The rise, the progress, the setting, of
imagery, should, like the sun, come natural to him, shine over him,
and set soberly although in magnificence, leaving him in the luxury of
twilight. But it is easier to think what poetry should be than to
write it And this leads me to another axiom--That, if poetry comes not
as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all."
Keats held that the melody of verse is founded on the adroit
management of open and close vowels. He thought that vowels can be as
skillfully combined and interchanged as differing notes of music, and
that monotony should only be allowed when it subserves some special
purpose.
The following, from a letter to Mr. Woodhouse, October 1818 (soon
after the abusive reviews had appeared in Blackwoods Magazine and The
Quarterly), is a remarkable piece of self-analysis. As we read it, we
should bear in mind what Haydon said of Keats's want of decision of
character. I am not indeed clear that Keats has here pourtrayed
himself with marked accuracy. It may appear that he ascribes to
himself too much of absorption into the object or the personage which
he contemplates; whereas it might, with fully as much truth, be
advanced that he was wont to assimilate the personage or the object to
himself. I greatly doubt whether in Keats's poems we see the object or
the personage the clearer because his faculty transpires through them:
rather, we see the object or the personage through the haze of
Keats. His range was not extremely extensive (whatever it might
possibly have become, with a longer lease of life), nor was his
personality by any means occulted. But in any event his statement here
is of great importance as showing what he thought of the poetic phase
of mind and working.
"As to the poetical character itself (I mean that sort of which, if I
am anything, I am a member--that sort distinguished from the
Wordsworthian or egotistical sublime, which is a thing per se, and
stands alone), it is not itself--it has no self. It is everything, and
nothing--it has no character. It enjoys light, and shade. It lives in
gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or
elevated--it has as much delight in conceiving an Iago as an
Imogen. What shocks the virtuous philosopher delights the chameleon
poet. It does no harm from its relish of the dark side of things, any
more than from its taste for the bright one, because they both end in
speculation. A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence,
because he has no identity: he is continually in for, and filling,
some other body. The sun, the moon, the sea, and men and women who are
creatures of impulse, are poetical, and have about them an
unchangeable attribute: the poet has none, no identity. He is
certainly the most unpoetical of all God's creatures. If then he has
no self, and if I am a poet, where is the wonder that I should say I
would write no more? Might I not at that very instant have been
cogitating on the characters of Saturn and Ops? It is a wretched thing
to confess, but it is a very fact, that not one word I ever utter can
be taken for granted as an opinion growing out of my identical
nature. How can it when I have _no_ nature? When I am in a room with
people, if I ever am free from speculating on creations of my own
brain, then not myself goes home to myself, but the identity of every
one in the room begins to press upon me [so] that I am in a very
little time annihilated. Not only among men; it would be the same in a
nursery of children."
Elsewhere Keats says, November 1817: "Nothing startles me beyond the
moment. The setting sun will always set me to rights; or if a sparrow
come before my window, I take part in its existence, and pick about
the gravel."
-----------------------------
Excerpt From:
LETTERS OF JOHN KEATS
TO HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS
EDITED BY SIDNEY COLVIN
TO FANNY KEATS.
Oxford, September 10, 1817.
My dear Fanny--Let us now begin a regular question and answer--a
little pro and con; letting it interfere as a pleasant method of my
coming at your favorite little wants and enjoyments, that I may meet
them in a way befitting a brother.
We have been so little together since you have been able to reflect on
things that I know not whether you prefer the History of King Pepin to
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress--or Cinderella and her glass slipper to
Moore's Almanack. However in a few Letters I hope I shall be able to
come at that and adapt my scribblings to your Pleasure. You must tell
me about all you read if it be only six Pages in a Week and this
transmitted to me every now and then will procure you full sheets of
Writing from me pretty frequently.--This I feel as a necessity for we
ought to become intimately acquainted, in order that I may not only,
as you grow up love you as my only Sister, but confide in you as my
dearest friend. When I saw you last I told you of my intention of
going to Oxford and 'tis now a Week since I disembark'd from his
Whipship's Coach the Defiance in this place. I am living in Magdalen
Hall on a visit to a young Man with whom I have not been long
acquainted, but whom I like very much--we lead very industrious
lives--he in general Studies and I in proceeding at a pretty good rate
with a Poem which I hope you will see early in the next year.--Perhaps
you might like to know what I am writing about. I will tell you.
Many Years ago there was a young handsome Shepherd who fed his flocks
on a Mountain's Side called Latmus--he was a very contemplative sort
of a Person and lived solitary among thetrees and Plains little
thinking that such a beautiful Creature as the Moon was growing mad in
Love with him.--However so it was; and when he was asleep on the Grass
she used to come down from heaven and admire him excessively for a
long time; and at last could not refrain from carrying him away in her
arms to the top of that high Mountain Latmus while he was a
dreaming--but I daresay you have read this and all the other beautiful
Tales which have come down from the ancient times of that beautiful
Greece. If you have not let me know and I will tell you more at large
of others quite as delightful. This Oxford I have no doubt is the
finest City in the world--it is full of old Gothic
buildings--Spires--towers--Quadrangles--Cloisters--Groves, etc., and
is surrounded with more clear streams than ever I saw together. I take
a Walk by the Side of one of them every Evening and, thank God, we
have not had a drop of rain these many days. I had a long and
interesting Letter from George, cross lines by a short one from Tom
yesterday dated Paris. They both send their loves to you. Like most
Englishmen they feel a mighty preference for everything English--the
French Meadows, the trees, the People, the Towns, the Churches, the
Books, the everything--although they may be in themselves good: yet
when put in comparison with our green Island they all vanish like
Swallows in October. They have seen Cat hedrals, Manuscripts,
Fountains, Pictures, Tragedy, Comedy,--with other things you may by
chance meet with in this Country such as Washerwomen, Lamplighters,
Turnpikemen, Fishkettles, Dancing Masters, Kettle drums, Sentry Boxes,
Rocking Horses, etc.--and, now they have taken them over a set of
boxing-gloves.
I have written to George and requested him, as you wish I should, to
write to you. I have been writing very hard lately, even till an utter
incapacity came on, and I feel it now about my head: so you must not
mind a little out-of-the-way sayings--though by the bye were my brain
as clear as a bell I think I should have a little propensity
thereto. I shall stop here till I have finished the 3d Book of my
Story; which I hope will be aucomplish'd in at most three Weeks from
to-day--about which time you shall see me. How do you like Miss
Taylor's essays in Rhyme--I just look'd into the Book and it appeared
to me suitable to you--especially since I remember your liking for
those pleasant little things the Original Poems--the essays are the
more mature production of the same hand. While I was speaking about
France it occurred to me to speak a few Words on their Language--it is
perhaps the poorest one ever spoken since the jabbering in the Towel
of Babel, and when you come to know that the real use and greatness of
a Tongue is to be referred to its Literature--you will be astonished
to find how very inferior it is to our native Speech.--I wish the
Italian would supersede French in every school throughout the Country,
for that is full of real Poetry and Romance of a kind more fitted for
the Pleasure of Ladies than perhaps our own.--It seems that the only
end to be gained in acquiring French is the immense accomplishment of
speaking it--it is none at all--a most lamentable mistake
indeed. Italian indeed would sound most musically from Lips which had
began to pronounce it as early as French is crammed down our Mouths,
as if we were young Jack-daws at the mercy of an overfeeding
Schoolboy. Now Fanny you must write soon--and write all you think
about, never mind what--only let me have a good deal of your
writing--You need not do it all at once--be two or three or four days
about it, and let it be a diary of your little Life. You will preserve
all my Letters and I will secure yours--and thus in the course of time
we shall each of us have a good Bundle--which, hereafter, when things
may have strangely altered and God knows what happened, we may read
over together and look with pleasure on times past--that now are to
come. Give my Respects to the Ladies--and so my dear Fanny I am ever
Your most affectionate Brother
JOHN.
If you direct--Post Office, Oxford--your Letter will be brought to me.
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pgmonthly_2003_11_05_part_2.txt
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