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Testimonia

*
"The Art of Worldly Wisdom", by Balthasar Gracian, tr. by Joseph Jacobs, [1892],

p. xi

Testimonia

Il
est si concis si rompu et si estrangement coup qu'il semble qu'il ait pris l'obscurit tasche: aussi le Lecteur a besoin d'en deuiner le sens & souvent quand il l'a compris il trouve qu'il s'est estudi faire une nigme d'une chose fort commune.

F. Van Aerssens,
\"Voyage d'Espagne", 1667, p. 294.

Il a beaucoup d'lvation, de subtilit, de force et mme de bon sens: mais on ne sait le plus souvent ce qu'il veut dire, et il ne le sait pas peut-tre lui-mme. Quelques-uns de ses Ouvrages ne semblent tre fait, que pour n'tre point entendus.

Bouhour
'S "Entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugne", 1671, p. 203.

\"Luisa de Padilla", a Lady of great Learning, and Countess of "Aranda", was in like manner angry with the famous Gratian upon his publishing his Treatise of the "Discreto", wherein she fancied that he had laid open those Maxims to common Readers, which ought only to be reserved for the knowledge of the Great. These Objections are thought by many of so much weight that they often defend

p. x

the above-mention'd Authors by affirming they have affected such an Obscurity in their Style and Manner of Writing, that tho' every one may read their Works there will be but very few who can comprehend their Meaning.

"The Spectator", No. 379 (1712).

En cherchant toujours l'nergie et le sublime il devient outr et se perd dans les mots. Gracian est aux bons moralistes ce que Don Quichotte est aux vrais hros. Its ont l'un et l'autre un faux air de grandeur qui en impose aux sots et qui fait rire les sages.

Abb Desfontaines, 1745.

Qu de elogios no se deben al autor del "Criticon"! En medio de las antitesis, paronomasias y toda la metralla culta es una de las obras ms recomendables de nuestra literatura por la felicidad de la invention, la inagotable riqueza de imagination y de sales, por la viveza de sus pinturas y por la gracia, soltura y naturalidad del estilo.

Don Manuel Sievela,
\"Biblioteca selecta de literatura espaola" (1819).

Si hubiese Gracian procedido con ms sobriedad en el uso de estos juegos y conceptos qual es el escritor de su tiempo de tantos dotes y caudal nativo para ser el ms fecondo y elezante, sabiendo, como lo manifesto, en dnde estaban las delicadezas y los donaires, esto es, lo amargo, lo dulce, lo picante, lo salado de la lengua castellana?

Don Antonio Capmany,
\"Teatro de la elocuencia espaola", tomo v.

The "Orculo Manual" has been more used than any other of the author's works. It is intended to be a collection of maxims of general utility, but it exhibits good and bad precepts, sound judgments, and refined sophisms, all confounded together. In this work Gracian has not forgotten

p. xiii

to inculcate his practical principles of Jesuitism to be all things to all men ("hacerse a todos"), nor to recommend his favourite maxim, "to be common in nothing" ("en nada vulgar"), which, in order to be valid, would require a totally different interpretation from that which he has given it.

Bouterwek.

The person, however, who settled the character of "cultismo" and in some respects gave it an air of philosophical pretension, was Baltazar Gracian, a Jesuit of Aragon, who lived between 1601 and 1658, exactly the period when the cultivated style took possession of Spanish prose and rose to its greatest consideration.

G. Ticknor,
\"History of Span. Lit." iii. 222.

Dabei ist es das Einzige seiner Art und nie ein anderes ber denselben Gegenstand geschrieben worden; denn nur ein Individuum aus der feinsten aller Nationen, der spanischen, konnte es versuchen.... Dasselbe lehrt die Kunst derer Allesich befliessigen und ist daher fr Jedermann. Besonders aber ist es geeignet das Handbuch aller derer zu werden, die in der grossen Welt leben, ganz vorzglich aber junger Leute, die ihr Glck darin zu machen bemht sind und denen es mit Einem Mal und zum Voraus die Belehrung giebt die sie sonst erst durch lange Erfahrung erhalten.

A. Schopenhauer,
\"Litterarische Notiz we seiner Uebersetzung" (1831, published 1861).

Avec beaucoup d'esprit, d'instruction & de facilit il n'a rien produit qui puisse aujourd'hui soutenir l'examen de la critique la plus impartiale.

Puibusque,
\"Histoire compare des littratures espagnole et franaise", 1843, i. p. 559.

Gracian aurait pu tre un excellent crivain s'il n'avait pas voulu devenir un crivain extraordinaire. Dou d'une

p. xiv

vaste rudition, d'un esprit fin, d'un talent profond d'observation, il tait n pour clairer son sicle; mais la vanit de devenir novateur corrompit son gout, en le portant introduire dans la prose ce langage prcieux, ces expressions alambiques que Gongora avait introduit dans les vers.

A. De Backer,
\"Bibliothque des crivains de la Compagnie de Jsus", 1869, "s.v." Gracian.

Asi como las mximas de Antonio Perez fueron muy populares entre cortesanos doctos ilustrados, as espaoles como extranjeros, por aquella delicadeza especial de estilo, las del Padre Baltasar Gracian alcanzaron la misma estima por ese atildamiento en el decir: atildamiento que tenia en si un inexplicable atractivo, y que aunque algo participaba del general culteranismo de la literatura espaola en aquel siglo, encerraba cierto buen gusto deslumbrador y lisonjero para el lector que on profundisimos conceptos preciaba con la fuerza de su ingenio aquellos.

Don Adolfo De Castro,
\"Obras escogidas de Filsofia", 1873, p. cviii.

Taking the book as a guide, especially for those who intend to enter public life, I have never chanced to meet with anything which seemed to me even distantly to approach it... It would possibly be rather difficult to disprove the thesis that the Spanish nation has produced the best maxims of practical wisdom, the best proverb, the best epitaph, and the best motto in the world, If I had to sustain it, I would point with reference to the first head to the "Orculo" Manual".

Sir M. E. Grant Duff on "Balthasar Gracian" in "Fortnightly Review", March 1877.

p. xv

Some have found light in the sayings of Balthasar Gracian, a Spaniard who flourished at the end of the seventeenth century.... I do not myself find Gracian much of a companion, though some of his aphorisms give a neat turn to a commonplace.

J. Morley on "Aphorisms, Studies", 1891, p. 86.

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