Reputation
Ames made no pretence to literary merit, and his position in the Society of Antiquaries generated a degree of antagonism. Edward Rowe Mores described him as ‘an arrant blunderer’ and accused him, with justification, of tearing out the title-pages of rare books in his collection. Among the works he is thought to have thus mutilated is the British Library copy of William Tyndale's 1526 New Testament, one of only two textually complete copies known. Francis Grose said that the history of printing published under his name actually was written by John Ward of Gresham College, though the materials probably were collected by Ames. William Cole thought he wrote like an illiterate and said he was an Independent by profession, but a deist in conversation. William Oldys (British Librarian, p. 374) acknowledges obligations to Ames, whom he styles ‘a worthy preserver of antiquities.’
Read more about this topic: Joseph Ames (author)
Famous quotes containing the word reputation:
““What have I earned for all that work,” I said,
“For all that I have done at my own charge?
The daily spite of this unmannerly town,
Where who has served the most is most defamed,
The reputation of his lifetime lost
Between the night and morning....””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.”
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“The reputation of generosity is to be purchased pretty cheap; it does not depend so much upon a man’s general expense, as it does upon his giving handsomely where it is proper to give at all. A man, for instance, who should give a servant four shillings, would pass for covetous, while he who gave him a crown, would be reckoned generous; so that the difference of those two opposite characters, turns upon one shilling.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)