"Judged by the influence upon men's minds alone, the writings which Leslie Stephen collected in Essays on Free-thinking and Plain-speaking (1873), and in An Agnostic's Apology (1893) (most of the latter written much earlier), must be considered the most important part of his life's work. One reason why, as we shall be presently reminded, he wrote disparagingly of literary criticism, was that it seemed so trivial compared with criticism of thought and religion. What if he had induced some readers to take a clearer view of the merits and limitations of Fielding or De Quincey, or if he had succeeded in giving a tolerably true account of some man's life? Of what importance was that compared with helping men to a truer conception of the nature of things, or with the work of a man of science?"
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Literary criticsUniversity of Cambridge alumniJournalists from EnglandTheatre criticsFellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Original Language: English
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(pbk reprint of 1937 1st edition; The Leslie Stephen Lecture delivered before the University of Cambridge on 27 May 1937)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Desmond_MacCarthy
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Desmond MacCarthy
Sir (20 May 1877 – 7 June 1952) was a British journalist, literary and drama critic, and literary editor. He was knighted in 1951.
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