Public-domain ebook
Language: en2,498 downloads on Project Gutenberg
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Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #30373.
The work is a sprawling anthology of quotations, arranged alphabetically by the first letter of each entry, offering more than two thousand excerpts drawn from ancient and modern writers on a wide range of subjects. It opens with a warmly addressed invitation to “good sir, or madam,” urging the reader to treat the volume as “literary food” that will nourish both mind and body. The compiler, John Purver Richardson, explains that the selections have been gathered over many years on both sides of the Atlantic, and he dedicates the book to his children and to an unnamed “large unnumbered band” of readers. The opening pages present a preface, a contents list that runs from A to Z, and the first entries under “A,” each accompanied by a brief citation and a terse commentary, establishing the book’s purpose as a reference‑style compendium of moral, philosophical, and practical maxims.
The voice is that of a 19th‑century editor‑compiler, earnest and didactic, employing a formal yet conversational tone that reflects the moral‑instructional literature of the period. The style is concise, often quoting classical authorities such as Pliny, Shakespeare, and Seneca, then adding brief reflections in the compiler’s own words. Readers who enjoy wandering through proverbial wisdom, who appreciate the pleasure of flipping from one alphabetic entry to another, and who have a taste for historical quotations, students of rhetoric, collectors of aphorisms, or anyone seeking a portable source of reflective sayings, will find this volume a rewarding companion.
The opening · free to read
Good sir, or madam, whosoever thou mayest be, to whom this volume shall come, cast it not aside, but read it. Its quaint, curious, and helpful selections have been gathered through many years of careful research on both sides of the Atlantic. They will make thee wiser and better, and will conduce to the growth of thy mind, and the health of thy body. Let this book be to thee a magazine of literary food, of which thou shalt partake, and which thou shalt assimilate and digest to the constant increase of thy well being.
The gathering of this bouquet of literary gems has been a work of pleasure, but the compiler shall say nothing of himself for, "the least that one can say of himself is still too much."
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