Essays
An essay ( composition, experiment ) is a short prose text in which personal impressions as well as the views of some issues from life, morality, science or art are pressented. The authors of essays are inclined towards their own or general experience, trying to bring their own thoughts closer to the reader by using rhetoric or poetic means. It is very hard to define the term essay and its field is not clearly determineted. It constantly hovers between literature, journalism and science - sometimes resembling a report, a short story or a prose poem, whereas sometimes a scientific article or a discussion. A historical essay has often had edifying, psyhological or entertaining contents. The originator and creator of the term essay is Michel de Montaigne. His essays were first written out of the notes taken on books already read which developed into the autobiographic-psychological thinking about different practical-ethical and social issues. The charm of Montaigne's essays is in their superficially chaotic yet skillfully organized presentation, as well as in their broad-minded but rather sceptical attitude towards life. Besides Michel de Montaigne, the most important renaissance essayist is his contemporary, an English philosopher, writer and statesman Francis Bacon. His essays are far less personal and graceful than Montaigne's and they are concerned with moral, political and aesthetic themes. Francis Bacon thought that an essay had had its forerunners in some Seneca's texts and the works of other writers. Thanks to Bacon's influence, an essay has been assimilated into England which is today justifably thought of as its true country of origin. In the second half of the 17th century John Dryden wrote distinguished critical literary essays. At the beginning of the 18th century Joseph Addison and Richard Steele introduced a periodical essay in their magazines. "The Tatler" and "The Spectator". An essay had influence even beyond the borders of England because of the exquisitely enlightening spirit of Addison and Steele's essays. Their essays were written with the intention to enlighten and teach in a pleasent manner, having a wide range of approaches and themes: some of them were humoristic reports, some the sketches of characters or meditations on relevant social themes, the criticism of literature or serious estetic discussions. What is common to them all is the natural and refined tone, simple and carefully chosen vocabulary, elegant wit. They remain a model of the genre for the whole of the 18th century, which is considered as the classical era of the English essay: Jonathan Swift wrote his satirical ironic essays, Henry Fielding wrote witty essays about literary issues ( they are included in his novels and the magazines he published ), Oliver Goldsmith wrote humoristic essays concerning everyday life. In the first decades of the 19th century a familiar essay emerged in England, its authors being Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt. The most prominent critical essayists of the 19th century were Matthew Arnold and Oscar Wilde. An essay become mostly the form of critical literary writing. The readers who were mostly attracted to an essay outside England were the readers in France. Charles Pierre Baudelaire's essays on literary and artistic themes can be included into the best French essays. An essay appears as the integral part of a great novel ( we can find essays inserted into the novels written by Miguel de Cervantes ). Even to these days, an essay has been preserved as a separate literary category which differs from scientific and journalistic publication in its meditative quality and peculiar style. It can be defined as a short composition, written in prose, which deals with an issue from life, moral, politics, art or science.
YOU SHOULD GO TO THE END OF THE WORLD AND FIND DEW IN THE GRASS
( Author Suzana Stojanovic, 1998 )
The young people who want to become educators have a dream about creating a new and a better person through their work, thus making the world better, fixing everything that is bad in that world, moulding people's destiny themselves. Their aim is to create better people for the present and the future, which means to teach them the wisdom of a happy lifetime.
The teacher remains ingrained in our memories for all our lives, not only by his name but also by his character, words and thoughts. We remember his eyes, face, build and voice. The light in our teacher's eyes led us into a strange world, into the magical gardens of dreams, into meadows, games of light, movements of plants, people and life, out of which we, still being kids, thought we would never come back. They led us into a life that was a dream and taught us how to make it real.
A teacher spins every truth with a colourful yarn of his words, because he believes that everything takes the shape which our soul and heart give to it. The teacher is our third parent. He loved us all and was committed to everyone and that is why the photograph of him together with the friends from the class takes the honorable place in the album, right beside the mom and dad's, reminding us of past days. With his greatness in the eyes of a pupil, the teacher very often becomes a teacher to mother and father, doesn't he? They respect the parent-teacher because he corrects the mistakes they have made in the upbringing, and makes us believe that an effort, skill and caution are the magical formulas for success. His knowledge is as endless as the sea: he is an actor, a painter, a singer and a musician. Every one of us likes having a brave teacher who will be ready to stand at the beginning of our knowledge in the uncertain path of life, to inflame the fire in our young hearts. I wonder who would stand at the very beginning of our secret path into life and the world if he wasn't there.
Every teacher knows that life gives us back as much as we give to it. He always radiates the internal power which has influence upon us. He has taught us that the best way is the one we do not see at once but know there is one, he taught us to read its sign in our hearts. Every real life is beautiful and hard. Life is a challenge and a game to play. Let us remember Branko Miljkovic and his words: "You should go to the end of the world and find dew in the grass..."
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