Russian Literature

* * * A man of the world amongst men of letters, a man of letters amongst men of the world.

There is first the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the literature of power. The function of the first is—to teach; the function of the second is—to move, the first is a rudder, the second an oar or a sail. The first speaks to the mere discursive understanding; the second speaks ultimately, it may happen, to the higher understanding or reason, but always through affections of pleasure and sympathy.

Time the great destroyer of other men's happiness, only enlarges the patrimony of literature to its possessor.