The Elements of Style
My diary

>>23370924
>Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.

what does this mean?

>>23371057
Basically, that we live in the world without knowing or understanding our origins (in the analogy symbolized by our “paternity”). We have no clear understanding of how consciousness (ie “our souls”) works or how it comes about, and can only wonder and speculate

>>23371057
It really is sad how low reading comprehension is. Are you a zoomer? ESL? Is this normal? That's not an exceptionally hard line to understand.

>>23371057
It means our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.

>>23370924
For prose? Just read Addison & Steele, Johnson, and Carlyle.