But so also is Suckling's account of a wedding that begins
I tell thee, Dick, where I have been.
This is literature:
And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and
a covert from the tempest;
As rivers of water in a dry place,
As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
But so is this literature:
One circle cannot touch another circle on the outside at
more points than one.
For, if it be possible, let the circle ACK touch the circle
ABC at the points A, C. Join AC.
Then because the two points A, C are in the
circumference of the circle ACK the line which joins them
falls within that circle.
But the circle ACK is without the circle ABC. Therefore
the straight line AC is without the circle ABC.
But because the two points A, C are in the circumference of
ABC therefore the straight line AC falls within that circle.
Which is absurd.
Therefore one circle cannot touch another on the outside at
more points than one.
All thoughts, as well as all passions, all delights
votum, timor, ira, voluptas—
whatsoever, in short, engages man's activity of soul or body, may be deemed the subject of literature and is transformed into literature by process of recording it in memorable speech. It is so, it has been so, and God forbid it should ever not be so!