Word: greats
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Dates: during 1873-1873
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Since we find Heine's appreciation of the singularities of Slavonic names so great, we can hardly expect that he held his peace in regard to our extraordinary sounds. Accordingly, in his "History of German Religion and Philosophy" we find a very witty illustration which is quite to the point. He gives an account of a man fabricated by an English mechanician. This manufactured man did credit to the author of his being, lacking only a soul, A sort of feeling the creature had in its leathern breast; and this feeling, Heine maliciously observes, was not essentially different from...
...less pretentious neighbors of the country with a kind of complacent disdain. We frequently see in them sharp hits against their plodding contemporaries, for commonplace and awkward expressions, and general lack of brilliancy. Though this criticism is to a large extent just, there is one matter in which our great metropolitan journals need to look to themselves. It is indeed a fault which is exceedingly prevalent in the highest class of our newspapers. I refer to the continual use of certain words and phrases, perhaps rather expressive originally, but which have been fairly worn out by indiscriminate and excessive...
...consequence of the Chicago fire, and have retained their place in the journalist's dialect ever since. Doubtless the man who invented the expression "Fire-Fiend" thought he had done a good thing in the way of personification, and the first six or seven editorials on the great fire were perhaps strengthened by the use of that bold figure. At any rate, its popularity was insured by the indorsement thus received. The "Phoenix" had also manifested himself to a few hopeful minds at this time, and these two some - what mythical personages forthwith entered upon an extended tour in company...
Such literary formulae may be of great convenience to editors and reporters; but after they have been learned by the reading public, they begin to lose, in a large degree, their effect. If an item of intelligence is worth mentioning at all (and, by the way, the fact of such worthiness should be more fully established than is generally the case), it deserves a distinct and appropriate description, and not one made up of cast-off metaphors and worn-out expressions that have already served to describe similar occasions, time out of mind...
...Study of Astronomy" is a nicely written rhapsody, indulging in such flights as these, "To his mind uninstructed in the mysteries of science, the starry firmament must have presented a great and wonderful scene. Its silence! its splendor! its immensity! its blue diamond-studded arch, resting upon the unseen and the unknown! Those wonderful lights! What are they? Whence do they come? Whither do they go?" The concluding article, "Perishable," is still more sermon-like than its companions, but is short...