The Art of Drinking: A Historical Sketch

The Art of Drinking: A Historical Sketch

G. G. Gervinus (1805-1871) is recognized as one of the foremost historians of Germany. He was a man of marvelous erudition. His fame rests not only upon a great number of profoundly learned works, but also upon his brilliant advocacy of the constitutional rights of the people, as against the reactionary tendency of the German princes during Metternichs despotic rule. He was one of the seven celebrated professors of the University of Gttingen who boldly protested against the violation of the Constitution by the King of Hanover. His best-known works are History of the Poetical Literature of the Germans, History of the Nineteenth Century, and a voluminous commentary on Shakspeare, made popular in Englandas the Encyclopdia Britannica statesby an excellent translation. A sketch of the art of drinking might seem to announce a subject unworthy of a man whose energies have been devoted to earnest purposes and serious aims in life. But it is not my intention to make the sketch a mere treasure-box of all sorts of curiosities, nor to gratify thereby the curiosity of idle readers. When it is approached from a scientific standpoint, the dignity of science must necessarily exclude all frivolous treatment, as well as all shallow and superficial purpose. Many would be satisfied if an insignificant sketch of this kind simply bore some pathetic motto, as these words of Senecas: Animum aliquando debemus relaxare et quibusdam oblectamentis reficere; sed ipsa oblectamenta opera sint. I, however, would scorn a justification of this kind, for I hold that recreation ought to be recreation, and not work, and should consider it far better if our labors were pleasures, rather than our pleasures, labors. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 47076
Author: Gervinus, Georg Gottfried
Release Date: Oct 8, 2014
Format: eBook
Language: English