Excerpt from Rats in the Sacristy Informal and casual appreciation of great historic and legendary figures can often be, in the hands of a kindred Spirit, more illuminating than the most exhaustive and erudite interpretations. Such I feel is especially true of these lively and characteristic essays of my brother. A man of letters is known by the intellectual company he keeps; and it interests me to trace the occult affinities between these very different guests of my brother's mind, answering as they must do, for all their diversity, certain deep spontaneous demands in so devoted an adherent. Is it possible, among such a gathering of great ones, in this very personal and private Elysian Field, to catch at some quality shared by all, which, like the brand on the back of a goodly flock, marks them as belonging to the same fold? This quality can hardly be what Nietzsche calls the Dionysian, as against the Apollonian, for any great teacher less Dionysian than Confucius could hardly be found. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.