Art Of Worldly Wisdom Gracian

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. &oldtn t^reaeurp or &oldtn €rtdutrp ^ertee OP 2luf bes ©lutfes grofcer tDaage Stetjt bie gunge felten eitt, Du mu§t fteigen ober finfen, Du mu§t J) errf djen unb getmnnen, ©ber bienen unb oerlteren, Ceiben ober triumpfyiren, 2lmbo§ ober jammer fetn. Goethe, Ein Kophtisches Lied. When you are an anvil, hold you still, When you are a hammer, strike your fill. G. Herbert, Jacula Prudentum. ( i OF BY BALTHASAR GRACIAN u TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY JOSEPH JACOBS Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of History, Madrid ILoniion MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK A ll rights reserved. V.3 43 c " r ^> TO MRS. G. H. LEWIS Dear Mrs. Lewis, This little book were not worthy of being associated with your name, did it not offer an ideal of life at once refined and practical, cultured yet wisely energetic. Gracian points to noble aims, and proposes, on the whole, no ignoble means of attaining to them. The Spanish Jesuit sees clear, but he looks upward\ There is, however, one side of life to which he is entirely blind, as was perhaps natural in an ecclesiastic writing before the Age of Salons. He nowhere makes mention in his pages of the gracious influence of Woman as Ihspirer and Consoler …