One of the more energetic and magisterial of contemporary British writers, A . S . Byatt is part of a generation of novelists-cum-academics from the provinces-- the 20th-century heiresses to George Eliot-- whose strong intellects won them entrance to the great universities and for whom, consequently, academia betokened not crabbed shelter but the freedom of noble company.
22.
I shall long remember going through Messrs . Birchenough's silk mills at Macclesfield . Certainly the occasion was an exceptional one . The eldest son had been married the day before, and the entire place had been decorated by the operatives to commemorate the event . The walls were adorned by appropriate mottoes, even unique representations of the bridal ceremony had been devised, and everything betokened the happy understanding existing there between labor and capital . ""
23.
There were very few women in those days who dared to " speak in meeting "; and the august teachers of the people were seemingly getting the better of us, while the boys in the galleries, and the sneerers among the pews, were hugely enjoying the discomfiture as they supposed, of the " strong-minded . " Some of the tender-skinned friends were on the point of losing dignity, and the atmosphere betokened a storm.
24.
He did indeed win, leading from the front, by about a length, in a record time of 9min 57.5sec'taken by three watches', and Green had ridden the gelding masterfully :'The judgment with which he steered Abd-el-Kader for this great event betokened an 3 artiste3 of no little merit, for he rode throughout with indomitable resolution, steadying the little horse when necessary, and keeping him going in that part of the line where his superior jumping soon made the heavy weights tell .'
25.
Kierkegaard tried to explain himself, Although " Either / Or " attracted all the attention, and nobody noticed the " Two Edifying Discourses ", this book betokened, nevertheless, that the edifying was precisely what must come to the fore, that the author was a religious author, who for this reason has never written anything aesthetic, but has employed pseudonyms for all the aesthetic works, whereas the " Two Edifying Discourses " were by Magister Kierkegaard . " I held out Either / Or to the world in my left hand, and in my right the " Two Edifying Discourses "; but all, or as good as all, grasped with their right what I held in my left . I had made up my mind before God what I should do : I staked my case on the " Two Edifying Discourses "; but I understood perfectly that only very few understood them.
