burton--1001-nights--sample

expedition to the Gold Coast (for gold), which seemed likely to cover
some months, I wrote to the “Athenaeum” (Nov. 13, 1881) and to Mr.
Payne, who was wholly unconscious that we were engaged on the same
work, and freely offered him precedence and possession of the field till
no longer wanted. He accepted my offer as frankly, and his priority
entailed another delay lasting till the spring of 1885. These details will
partly account for the lateness of my appearing, but there is yet another
cause. Professional ambition suggested that literary labours, unpopular
with the vulgar and the half educated, are not likely to help a man up
the ladder of promotion. But common sense presently suggested to me
that, professionally speaking, I was not a success, and, at the same time,
that I had no cause to be ashamed of my failure. In our day, when we
live under a despotism of the lower “middle class” Philister who can
pardon anything but superiority, the prizes of competitive services are
monopolized by certain “pets” of the Médiocratie, and prime favourites
of that jealous and potent majority — the Mediocrities who know
“no nonsense about merit.” It is hard for an outsider to realise how
perfect is the monopoly of commonplace, and to comprehend how
fatal a stumbling-stone that man sets in the way of his own advancement
who dares to think for himself, or who knows more or who does
more than the mob of gentlemen-employés who know very little and
who do even less.
Yet, however behindhand I may be, there is still ample room and
verge for an English version of the “Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.”
Our century of translations, popular and vernacular, from (Professor
Antoine) Galland’s delightful abbreviation and adaptation (A.D.
1704), in no wise represent the eastern original. The best and latest,
the Rev. Mr. Foster’s, which is diffuse and verbose, and Mr. G. Moir
Bussey’s, which is a re-correction, abound in gallicisms of style and
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