The Search for Good Sense: Four Eighteenth-Century Characters; Johnson, Chesterfield, Boswell, Goldsmith (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Search for Good Sense: Four Eighteenth-Century Characters; Johnson, Chesterfield, Boswell, Goldsmith

On the Other hand, a life grows lifeless if too short. For vividness depends on detail. The brevity of an encyclopaedia can reduce to prosaic boredom even a Casar or an Alexander.

Therefore there is often much to be said, I think, for a happy mean - a length of 60 - 120 pages, which attempts to omit nothing that is really vital, and to include nothing that is not; which can leave a unified impression, but not lay a staggering load upon the memory. (a supreme success at this, to my mind, is sainte-beuve.1)

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