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\n920045P217  \nc  \nhttps://archive.org/details/laborersinvineya0000giov  \n# LABORERS INTHE VINEYARD\n\n920  \nP2I7  \n# GIOVANNI PAPINI\n\nTRANSLATED BY  \nALICE CURTAYNE  \nLONGMANS,GREEN AND CO.  \n55 FIFTH AVENUE ·NEW YORK  \n# PAPINILABORERS IN THE VINEYARD\n\nCOPYRIGHT·I930BY LONGMANs,GREEN AND co.  \nFIRST EDITION  \n25782  \n# LETTER TO THE READER\n\nDEAR READER:  \nI cAN talk to you in confidence because I do not knowyou.First of all,forgive me if I offer you for thefourth time a group of portraits instead of the greatuniversal portrait which has not yet come to light.  \nPerhaps you were expecting Adam,or The Recordof Mankind,which I have been promising since Iwas a young man.The truth is that I have beenthinking out this book and working on it for fullytwenty years.But with the passage of time and a cor-respondingly wider range of observation and deeperreflection,the work becomes continually longer and,for me,continually more difficult.It will be a booksuch as is rarely seen today,I mean as regards its di-mensions:three hundred chapters in three large vol-umes.However I set about it,I can hardly concedeless to the human species,and may Heaven guide me!Probably your kind interest will be chilled by the merebulk of the thing,but in such a work,which I have feltand still feel to be a duty,I cannot allow omissions,ora hasty termination,for any reasons of convenience.I can keep within the limits of two thousand pagessimply because I have been terse,but more than that Icannot grant.If even three men out of the whole[ii]  \nLETTER TO THE READER  \nworld read the book,I shall not hold these years tohave been wasted.  \nMeanwhile I thought to collect the following essaysinto one volume;some are new,others were scatteredhere and there in periodicals or reviews of small cir-culation,and certain readers may be glad to have themcorrected and put together.Remember that literaryvanity can hardly be eradicated;even when it is con-fessed it is by no means destroyed.  \nIf you happen to know my other books of essays:Ventiquattro Cervelli,Stroncature,and Testimonianze,you will notice a difference here which should not sur-prise you.There is more couching of the lance inthose three volumes and more of the aureole in this.Not that the legend is really true which says that Iused to rend and tear wholesale,but perhaps the wolfput out its claws now and then;not driven by hatred,mind you,but by an inherent,rooted intolerance formediocrity and falsehood.Even today,if I saw thenecessity,I should be ready to begin over again;Swift said that to blame the sin and respect the sinneris the same as blaming the cards and excusing thesharper.  \nYou will find in this volume only essays of my ownchoosing.But if I am not mistaken,you will findthem illuminating too,because it is said that affectionis the best approach to understanding.(For when dowe fail in affection?Is the failure always due either  \n[iv]  \nLETTER TO THE READER  \nto our own dryness or to the unlovable qualitiesabounding in the other person?Is it always prefer-able to remain silent in such cases,with the excuse thatwe do not understand because we have no affection?Could we not say rather that if love helps us to pene-trate beautiful natures,hatred enables us to understandugly natures ?)  \nIn this volume you will see that choice has led me tospeak of only three types of men:saints,men whosought sanctity,and artists.For I confess that in myview the only people one can really admire or toleratein this world are saints and artists:those who imitateGod,and those who imitate the works of God.Onlythey have any commerce with the Eternal,and forthat reason they rise above the herd of wage-earnersand pleasure-seekers.Saints try to guess the soul ofthe Eternal and to become like unto Him;artists striveto reproduce His vesture.The saint is the legitimateson of God(we are all sons by right,but few of usrea","cbCaigia1Rjm3zKM","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigia1Rjm3zKM","pdf",10678224,280,"English","# LETTER TO THE READER\n## Purpose and scope of the book\n## Essays collected and author’s approach\n## Saints and artists as central subjects","[{\"question\":\"Why does Papini apologize for not delivering the “great universal portrait” yet?\",\"answer\":\"He says he has long promised such a portrait but is still working toward it. Instead, he offers portraits of others as part of the book he has been preparing for years.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Papini describe the size and structure of the overall work?\",\"answer\":\"He explains that the planned work is unusually large—three hundred chapters across three large volumes—while he keeps the combined length within limits by being concise.\"},{\"question\":\"What types of men does Papini claim the volume focuses on?\",\"answer\":\"He states that the essays speak about only three types of men, emphasizing saints, those who seek sanctity, and artists as the main figures he admires or can tolerate.\"}]","Laborers in the Vineyard - Letter to the Reader | PDF",1790619830,431]