Children's Reading by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Now I should tell you, Gentlemen, that I hold such utterances as this last -- whatever you may think of the utterances of the Botocudos -- to be exorbitant: that I distrust all attempts to build up (say) Paradise Lost historically from the yells and capers of recondite savages. "Life is real, life is earnest" may be no better aesthetically (I myself think it a little better) than "Now we have something to eat" "Brandy is good" may rival Pindar's 'Αριστον μὲν ὐδωρ, and indeed puts what it contains of truth with more of finality, less of provocation (though Pindar at once follows up 'Αριστον μὲν ὐδωρ with exquisite poetry): but you cannot -- truly you cannot -- exhibit the steps which lead up from "Brandy is good" to such lines as

Thus with the year Seasons return; but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine.