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Old 07-23-2008, 10:12 PM   #66
Elsi
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TedPark View Post
2. Advice to a Son by Francis Osborne

#2 I have not yet found even any raw electic text to work from. Any advice or help on locating same would be much appreciated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney View Post
See Google Books, which offers a PDF. The PDF will be scanned page images, and you'll need to OCR and convert.
On the Google Books page, there's an option to view plain text. The "viewer" is some strange thing, but you can -- if you're careful -- copy/paste into a text document. I did this with a 200 page book. It was tedious and the viewer threw up some repeated text, but if you're patient, it may be easier than trying to OCR the PDF file. (Of course, I've never OCRer a PDF file, so it may be easier than I am thinking it would be.)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Google Books
INTRODUCTION

ALTHOUGH Francis Osborne's Advice to a Son has ^
been reprinted in this century, the public seem to
have called for no further edition of his complete
works since 1722. In his own day he must have
made a considerable mark, not only among students
but also among contemporary men of letters.
Aubrey speaks of him as the friend of Hobbes,
and Dr. Blackbourne confirms this by setting out
a list of the patrons and friends of Hobbes, among
whom we find " Francis Osborne, Esq., whose
writings are sufficiently known," placed between "
Mr. Samuel Butler who wrote that admirable poem '••-
entitled Jfudibras " and " Edmund Waller of Beacons-
field."* Pepys in later years studied the Advice to
a Son with affectionate particularity and in that
strain of homely vanity which is one of the greatest
charms of the Diary records, October 19, 1661, "
I not being neat in clothes, which I find a great
fault in me, could not be so merry as otherwise, and
at all times I am and can be, when I am in good *
habitt, which makes me remember my father Osborne's
rule for a gentleman to spare in all things rather
than in that." And again, Jan. 27, 1663-4, details
a literary conversation with Sir William Petty at
a Coffeehouse, " who in discourse is, methinks, one
of the most rational men that ever I heard speak
with a tongue," saying, " that in all his life
these three books were the most esteemed and
generally cried up for wit in the world — Eeligio
Medici, Osborne's Advice to a Son, and Hudibras."
But the taste for Osborne's writings, perhaps
naturally, gave place to better things. Swift in
the Tatter ranks Osborne with some others, who "
being men of the Court and affecting the phrases
then in fashion, are often either not to be understood
or appear perfectly ridiculous." While Dr. Johnson,
being moved by Boswell's expression of liking for
his works, sums him up in one contemptuous phrase : "
A conceited fellow. Were a man to write so now,
the boys would throw stones at him." Boswell, however,
is not ready to accept this summary criticism
of his " favourite author."
Needs some cleaning up by perusing the PDF file, but if this is the only source available, you might spend 1/2 hour a day until the task is done.

Last edited by Elsi; 07-23-2008 at 10:16 PM.
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