[Ads-l] Adage: There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here is another thematic match in French in 1787. The link leads to
the ungarbled text. Would love to have a good translation.

Year: 1787 - MDCCLXXXVII
Book: Eléments de Littérature
Author: M. Marmontel (Jean-François Marmontel)
Volume: 1
Section: Ampoulé
Quote Page 188
Publisher: Née de la Rochelle, Paris

http://bit.ly/1GYlqTP

[Begin excerpt]
Voilà ce qui s'appelle de l'ampoulé: l'exagération en est risible, à
force d'être extravagante. En général, le ridicule touche au sublime,
& pour marcher sur la limite qui les sépare, sans la passer jamais, il
faut bien prendre garde à soi.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 9:16 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> The mailing list gateway destroyed all the diacritical marks which I
> carefully inserted, of course. Luckily, if the reader follows the
> links they lead to page images which show the text with diacritical
> marks.
>
> Apologies for the garbled text. The situation is pathetique (the e
> should have an acute accent).
> Garson
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 8:56 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Adage: There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Nigel Rees discussed the adage in the subject line in his newsletter
>> of April 2015, and requested help from readers. I researched this
>> topic last year, but suspended the work. Perhaps someone on the list
>> would be willing to provide a translation of the French in the two
>> citations below.
>>
>> The first cite is a solid match, I think. The second cite is a weaker
>> thematic match.
>>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org