The Powder of Sympathy


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Another collection of mostly short “soliloquys” from Christopher Morley, an American literary luminary, who introduces them thus: “… these pieces were written, day by day, out of the pressure and hilarity and contention of the mind. I have made no attempt to conceal their ephemeral origin. They were almost all written for a newspaper, and contain many references to journalism. … it is remarkable that they should have been written at all: remarkable that any newspaper should take the pains to offer space to speculations of this sort. I have not scrupled, on occasion, to chaff some of the matters newspapers are supposed to hold sacred. …

But a columnist … is only a deboshed Editorial Writer, a fallen angel abjected from the secure heaven of anonymity. … unsuspecting whether intended by his scheming employer as a decoy, or a doormat, or a gargoyle, or a lightning rod (how is he to know, never having been given instruction of any sort except to go ahead and write as he pleases?) … [T]he columnist pursues his task and gradually distils a philosophy of his own out of his duties. Oddly enough, instead of growing more cautious by reason of his exposure, he becomes almost dangerously candid. He knows that if he is wrong he will be set right the next morning by a stack of letters varying in number according to the nature of his indiscretion. - Summary by Winnifred Assmann and excerpts from the Preface

Note: "The word ... niggardly [used in section 42, is] ... etymologically unrelated to the highly offensive and inflammatory racial slur euphemistically referred to as the N-word, despite the ... visual and auditory resemblance to it." Merriam-Webster (8 hr 2 min)

Chapters

Epigraph and Dedication 7:24 Read by Winnifred Assmann
An Oxford Symbol 10:14 Read by Winnifred Assmann
Scapegoats 7:38 Read by quartertone
To a New Yorker a Hundred Years Hence 6:12 Read by Winnifred Assmann
A Call for the Author 4:25 Read by ChristopherKloko
Mr. Pepys’s Christmases 8:47 Read by John Leloup
Children as Copy 8:18 Read by Winnifred Assmann
Hail, Kinsprit! 3:56 Read by quartertone
Round Manhattan Island 6:36 Read by quartertone
The Unknown Citizen 6:42 Read by quartertone
Sir Kenelm Digby 29:05 Read by John Leloup
First Impressions of an Amiable Visitor 6:21 Read by Natalie Fortier
In Honorem: Martha Washington 5:54 Read by Stacey Malcolm
According to Hoyle 4:40 Read by SC1701
L. E. W. 4:55 Read by Mu
Our Extension Course 5:36 Read by CCam
Some Recipes 6:34 Read by Mu
Adventures of a Curricular Engineer 7:13 Read by SC1701
Santayana in the Subway 13:16 Read by valroth
Madonna of the Taxis 6:26 Read by valroth
Matthew Arnold and Exodontia 16:58 Read by John Leloup
Dame Quickly and the Boilroaster 9:52 Read by Amos Buchanan
Vacationing with De Quincey 31:39 Read by John Leloup
The Spanish Sultry 7:21 Read by John Leloup
What Kind of a Dog? 4:25 Read by Winnifred Assmann
A Letter from Gissing 4:24 Read by Winnifred Assmann
July 8, 1822 6:40 Read by AlexaTindallVA
Midsummer in Salamis 8:12 Read by tshoes76
The Story of Ginger Cubes 41:38 Read by tshoes76
The Editor at the Ball Game 11:02 Read by AlexaTindallVA
The Dame Explores Westchester 10:46 Read by Amos Buchanan
The Power and the Glory 5:59 Read by SC1701
Gissing Joins a Country Club 9:15 Read by Winnifred Assmann
Three Stars on the Back Stoop 7:28 Read by John Leloup
A Christmas Card 7:30 Read by John Leloup
Symbols and Paradoxes 8:10 Read by John Leloup
The Return to Town 7:11 Read by SC1701
Maxims and Minims 54:46 Read by tshoes76
Two Reviews 15:21 Read by tshoes76
Buddha on the L 12:08 Read by Frederick O'Brien
Intellectuals and Roughnecks 14:24 Read by Ann Boulais
The Fun of Writing 5:02 Read by April6090
A Christmas Soliloquy 22:21 Read by Ann Boulais