Word: morsel
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...more sober plants of history and biography their fancy seldom leads them. The rich stores of Macaulay and Prescott lie too deep for their shallow taste. The sole care of these literary butterflies is to draw pleasure from the writings of other; that they never add the smallest morsel to the food of the reading world grieves them not in the least; nor do they mourn that they have planted no flowers to brighten the garden of literature with blossoms. They appear to have fed on lotus-flowers, so dulled are their senses to the duties and pleasures of labor...
...Billings. It matters little, however, whether we are able to discover the wit, so long as we are assured it is there. Why attempt to crack the nut, knowing, as we do, that the kernel is safely incased within; ten to one we shall find a shrivelled morsel for our pains. I learn from men of wisdom, - men who, by a theory of events, have ascertained to an hour the time of Homer's birth and death, - that the study of Aristophanes and other primitive pagans is calculated to elevate and purify the taste, to humanize our manners and conversation...