10 for Sigmund Freud—abhorred thenvery notion of “hterature” and nevernwrote anything but “thoughts.” Tonsuppose that the Western reader, considerablynless aware of this writer’snachievement in 1987 than he was inn1929, when 750 copies of FallennLeaves were published by James Stephensnat the Mandrake Press, maynnotice and understand two of Rozanov’snthoughts served up as “aphorisms”nis sheer folly. In the pages ofnThe Oxford Book of Aphorisms, thenobscure are doomed to obscurity.nFreud, on the other hand, is a “famousnname” whose prominence in anbook such as this is ipso facto assured.n”The principal task of civilisation,”nruns one of the good doctor’s apothegms,n”is to defend us against nature.”nStartling, is it not? One suspectsnthat the same quotation will some dayndelight the readers of The Oxford Booknof hlature, The Oxford Book of Civilization,nand The Oxford Book of Tasks,namong other useful compilations OUPnmay be contemplating. Likewise, AnatolenFrance need not worry: Even ifnOUP decides to bring out a franklyncommercial titie like The Oxford Booknof Sex, a line or two of his, no matternhow trite, will doubtless be included.nFor instance: “Of all sexual aberrations,nchastity is the strangest.”nEven if not motivated by misplacedncommercial considerations, OUP’s obsessivenanthologizing borders on thenabsurd. If one likes Wordsworth, onenhas certainly read The Prelude andnneed not buy The Oxford Book ofnDreams to savour “the language of thendream” which the poet learned atnCambridge. If one dislikes Wordsworth,nfinding the relevant passagencategorized as “Travel and the NaturalnWorld” under the rubric “EarthlynThings,” next to the rather enigmaticn”Gladness of mind shows that you willnlive abroad” from The Oneirocriticonnby Astrampsychus, c. A.D. 350, willnprobably do little to change one’snmind. For whom, then, are thesenbooks?nThere are, to be sure, writers sonquotable their oeuvre begs to be parceledninto small lots: One thinks ofnWilde, La Bruyere, Karl Kraus, andnfive or six others. (Even so, why notnread them, as it were, “in the original”?)nBut Proust? William James?nGeorge Herbert? Surely, to gouge outnof the body of Dostoevsky’s work ann”aphorism” like “The formula ‘twonand two make five’ is not without itsnattractions” is a senseless act of editorialnbrutality. It is all the more painful tonsee such acts committed with the solenaim of “popularizing” a variety ofnreadily available cultural commodities.nD.J. Enright is a brilliant anthologistnby divine vocation, as well as onenof the most amusing writers around,nbut even he seems unable to breathenlife into The Oxford Book of Death. Yetnhere, at least, the editor’s introductionsnto each of the chapters, if not thenbook itself, may be well worth thencover price. Finally, there is The OxfordnBook of Literary Anecdotes. Itsnpremise is clear, its contents suitablynhighbrow, and those who feel the neednto enliven their conversation duringnthe evening commute to TunbridgenWells would certainly do better tellingnstories about famous writers thannintimidating their companions withnall those aphorisms, dreams, andnthoughts of death.nAndrei Navrozov is poetry editor ofnChronicles.nLetter From thenLower Rightnby John Shelton ReednThe Forsyth SaganYou may recall last January’s events innForsyth County, Georgia, when annewly arrived Californian announcednhis presence by attempting to organizena march in Gumming, the countynseat, to honor Martin Luther King.nThat bait wouldn’t tempt an undiscriminatingncatfish, but a few of thenlocal old boys rose to it anyway, displayingnonce again the simplicity thatnis one of their simultaneously endearingnand infuriating traits. Although thenthreats they proceeded to issue werentransparently less sincere than thosendirected the previous month at thenpresident of the University of Alabamanwhen he engaged the services of anfootball coach with a less than awesomenwin-loss record, they werennnLibeity/tesis’/ljbertyCfassignTHE SOUTHERN ESSAYSnOF RICHARD M. WEA^’ERnForeword by George CorenEdited with Preface bynGeorge M. Curtis, III andnJames J. Thompson, Jr.nRichard M. Weaver (1910-1963)nwas one of the leading figuresnin the post World War II developmentnof an intellectual, self-consciousnconservatism, and his mostnimportant and widely cited book,nIdeas Have Consequences (Chicago,n1948), is still in print.nWeaver’s appreciation of libertynwas rooted in his understanding ofnSouthern history. This collectionnof fourteen of Weaver’s essays onnthe South and Southern history isnpresented in demonstration ofnGeorge Core’s point that “fewncritics of the South rival RichardnWeaver in comprehensiveness ofnvision and depth of thought. …”nAmong the essays included aren”Lee the Philosopher” (1948),n”Agrarianism in Exile” (1950),n”The Tennessee Agrarians”n(1952), “The South and thenAmerican Union” (1957), andn”Two Types of Individualism”n(1963).nGeorge M. Curtis, III is Professornof History at Hanover Collegenand James J. Thompson, Jr., isnBook Review ‘^iXxtoi o^The NewnOxford Review.n266 + xxii pages. Foreword, preface,nacknowledgments, index.nHardcover $10.00 0-86597-057-2nPaperbacks 4.50 0-86597-058-0nLiberty Fund edition, 1987nPrepayment is required on all ordersnnot for resale. We pay book rate postagenon prepaid orders. Please allow 4nto 6 weeks for delivery. j4//orders fromnoutside the United States mi/sfhe prepaidnin U.S. dollars. To order, or for ancopy of our catalogue, write:nLiberty Pri?.t.f/LibertyC/tfj.f/(“.rn7440 North Shadeland, Dept. U-103nIndianapolis, IN 46250nJULY 1987/43n