,notes on the text4 ,literary ,taste was first published in ,august #aiji4 ,i have worked from a copy of the seventh edition of ,february #aiad4 ,the text was keyed in manually and then scanned2 the two versions so produced were then compared using ms word's track changes tool and brought into agreement4 ,ambiguity arises concerning the intended hyphenation of six words in the original printed text--hill-side1 super-eminently1 re-birth1 school-master1 red-gauntlet1 hood-winking--which in it are made to run over two lines4 ,i have attempted to hyphenate these words 7or not to do so7 as ,i think ,bennett would have done1 guided in these judgments in part by ,a ,new ,english ,dictionary 7#aibh71 the most authoritative ,english dictionary published up until ,bennett's death in #aica4 ,of the three occurrences of the name ,newnes's ,thin-,paper ,classics1 ,bennett hyphenates only one2 ,i have hyphenated all three4 ,in the list for poets of ,period ,i1 the entry for ,beaumont and ,fletcher contains an apparent typo1 which ,i have corrected 7or altered1 at least74 ,for those interested1 the original entry for these authors contained no colon before the edition name 7,canterbury ,poets71 and italicised the word ',plays' only1 leaving the words 'a ,selection' in plain type4 ,the book's only footnote has been placed in brackets immediately after the chapter title to which ,bennett appended it4 ,,literary ,,taste ,,how ,,to ,,form ,,it ,,with ,,detailed ,,instructions ,,for ,,collecting ,a ,,complete ,,library ,,of ,,english ,,literature ,,by ,,arnold ,,bennett ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,aim ,,chapter ,,ii ,,your ,,particular ,,case ,,chapter ,,iii ,,why ,a ,,classic ,,is ,a ,,classic ,,chapter ,,iv ,,where ,,to ,,begin ,,chapter ,v ,,how ,,to ,,read ,a ,,classic ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,question ,,of ,,style ,,chapter ,,vii ,,wrestling ,,with ,,an ,,author ,,chapter ,,viii ,,system ,,in ,,reading ,,chapter ,,ix ,,verse ,,chapter ,x ,,broad ,,counsels ,,chapter ,,xi ,,an ,,english ,,library3 ,,period ,i ,,chapter ,,xii ,,an ,,english ,,library3 ,,period ,,ii ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,an ,,english ,,library3 ,,period ,,iii ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,mental ,,stocktaking ,chapter ,i ,,the ,,aim ,at the beginning a misconception must be removed from the path4 ,many people1 if not most1 look on literary taste as an elegant accomplishment1 by acquiring which they will complete themselves1 and make themselves finally fit as members of a correct society4 ,they are secretly ashamed of their ignorance of literature1 in the same way as they would be ashamed of their ignorance of etiquette at a high entertainment1 or of their inability to ride a horse if suddenly called upon to do so4 ,there are certain things that a man ought to know1 or to know about1 and literature is one of them3 such is their idea4 ,they have learnt to dress themselves with propriety1 and to behave with propriety on all occasions2 they are fairly up in the questions of the day2 by industry and enterprise they are succeeding in their vocations2 it behoves them1 then1 not to forget that an acquaintance with literature is an indispensable part of a self-respecting man's personal baggage4 ,painting doesn't matter2 music doesn't matter very much4 ,but everyone is supposed to know about literature4 ,then1 literature is such a charming distraction6 ,literary taste thus serves two purposes3 as a certificate of correct culture and as a private pastime4 ,a young professor of mathematics1 immense at mathematics and games1 dangerous at chess1 capable of ,haydn on the violin1 once said to me1 after listening to some chat on books1 ,yes1 ,i must take up literature4 ,as though saying3 ,i was rather forgetting literature4 ,however1 ,i've polished off all these other things4 ,i'll have a shy at literature now4 ,this attitude1 or any attitude which resembles it1 is wrong4 ,to him who really comprehends what literature is1 and what the function of literature is1 this attitude is simply ludicrous4 ,it is also fatal to the formation of literary taste4 ,people who regard literary taste simply as an accomplishment1 and literature simply as a distraction1 will never truly succeed either in acquiring the accomplishment or in using it half-acquired as a distraction2 though the one is the most perfect of distractions1 and though the other is unsurpassed by any other accomplishment in elegance or in power to impress the universal snobbery of civilised mankind4 ,literature1 instead of being an accessory1 is the fundamental 99sine qua non99 of complete living4 ,i am extremely anxious to avoid rhetorical exaggerations4 ,i do not think ,i am guilty of one in asserting that he who has not been presented to the freedom of literature has not wakened up out of his prenatal sleep4 ,he is merely not born4 ,he can't see2 he can't hear2 he can't feel1 in any full sense4 ,he can only eat his dinner4 ,what more than anything else annoys people who know the true function of literature1 and have profited thereby1 is the spectacle of so many thousands of individuals going about under the delusion that they are alive1 when1 as a fact1 they are no nearer being alive than a bear in winter4 ,i will tell you what literature is6 ,no--,i only wish ,i could4 ,but ,i can't4 ,no one can4 ,gleams can be thrown on the secret1 inklings given1 but no more4 ,i will try to give you an inkling4 ,and1 to do so1 ,i will take you back into your own history1 or forward into it4 ,that evening when you went for a walk with your faithful friend1 the friend from whom you hid nothing-- or almost nothing4446 ,you were1 in truth1 somewhat inclined to hide from him the particular matter which monopolised your mind that evening1 but somehow you contrived to get on to it1 drawn by an overpowering fascination4 ,and as your faithful friend was sympathetic and discreet1 and flattered you by a respectful curiosity1 you proceeded further and further into the said matter1 growing more and more confidential1 until at last you cried out1 in a terrific whisper3 ,my boy1 she is simply miraculous6 ,at that moment you were in the domain of literature4 ,let me explain4 ,of course1 in the ordinary acceptation of the word1 she was not miraculous4 ,your faithful friend had never noticed that she was miraculous1 nor had about forty thousand other fairly keen observers4 ,she was just a girl4 ,troy had not been burnt for her4 ,a girl cannot be called a miracle4 ,if a girl is to be called a miracle1 then you might call pretty nearly anything a miracle4444 ,that is just it3 you might4 ,you can4 ,you ought4 ,amid all the miracles of the universe you had just wakened up to one4 ,you were full of your discovery4 ,you were under a divine impulsion to impart that discovery4 ,you had a strong sense of the marvellous beauty of something1 and you had to share it4 ,you were in a passion about something1 and you had to vent yourself on somebody4 ,you were drawn towards the whole of the rest of the human race4 ,mark the effect of your mood and utterance on your faithful friend4 ,he knew that she was not a miracle4 ,no other person could have made him believe that she was a miracle4 ,but you1 by the force and sincerity of your own vision of her1 and by the fervour of your desire to make him participate in your vision1 did for quite a long time cause him to feel that he had been blind to the miracle of that girl4 ,you were producing literature4 ,you were alive4 ,your eyes were unlidded1 your ears were unstopped1 to some part of the beauty and the strangeness of the world2 and a strong instinct within you forced you to tell someone4 ,it was not enough for you that you saw and heard4 ,others had to see and hear4 ,others had to be wakened up4 ,and they were6 ,it is quite possible--,i am not quite sure-- that your faithful friend the very next day1 or the next month1 looked at some other girl1 and suddenly saw that she1 too1 was miraculous6 ,the influence of literature6 ,the makers of literature are those who have seen and felt the miraculous interestingness of the universe4 ,and the greatest makers of literature are those whose vision has been the widest1 and whose feeling has been the most intense4 ,your own fragment of insight was accidental1 and perhaps temporary4 99,their99 lives are one long ecstasy of denying that the world is a dull place4 ,is it nothing to you to learn to understand that the world is not a dull place8 ,is it nothing to you to be led out of the tunnel on to the hill-side1 to have all your senses quickened1 to be invigorated by the true savour of life1 to feel your heart beating under that correct necktie of yours8 ,these makers of literature render you their equals4 ,the aim of literary study is not to amuse the hours of leisure2 it is to awake oneself1 it is to be alive1 to intensify one's capacity for pleasure1 for sympathy1 and for comprehension4 ,it is not to affect one hour1 but twenty-four hours4 ,it is to change utterly one's relations with the world4 ,an understanding appreciation of literature means an understanding appreciation of the world1 and it means nothing else4 ,not isolated and unconnected parts of life1 but all of life1 brought together and correlated in a synthetic map6 ,the spirit of literature is unifying2 it joins the candle and the star1 and by the magic of an image shows that the beauty of the greater is in the less4 ,and1 not content with the disclosure of beauty and the bringing together of all things whatever within its focus1 it enforces a moral wisdom by the tracing everywhere of cause and effect4 ,it consoles doubly-- by the revelation of unsuspected loveliness1 and by the proof that our lot is the common lot4 ,it is the supreme cry of the discoverer1 offering sympathy and asking for it in a single gesture4 ,in attending a ,university ,extension ,lecture on the sources of ,shakespeare's plots1 or in studying the researches of ,george ,saintsbury into the origins of ,english prosody1 or in weighing the evidence for and against the assertion that ,rousseau was a scoundrel1 one is apt to forget what literature really is and is for4 ,it is well to remind ourselves that literature is first and last a means of life1 and that the enterprise of forming one's literary taste is an enterprise of learning how best to use this means of life4 ,people who don't want to live1 people who would sooner hibernate than feel intensely1 will be wise to eschew literature4 ,they had better1 to quote from the finest passage in a fine poem1 sit around and eat blackberries4 ,the sight of a common bush afire with ,god might upset their nerves4 ,chapter ,,ii ,,your ,,particular ,,case ,the attitude of the average decent person towards the classics of his own tongue is one of distrust--,i had almost said1 of fear4 ,i will not take the case of ,shakespeare1 for ,shakespeare is taught in schools2 that is to say1 the ,board of ,education and all authorities pedagogic bind themselves together in a determined effort to make every boy in the land a lifelong enemy of ,shakespeare4 7,it is a mercy they don't teach ,blake47 ,i will take1 for an example1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 as to whom the average person has no offensive juvenile memories4 ,he is bound to have read somewhere that the style of ,sir ,thomas ,browne is unsurpassed by anything in ,english literature4 ,one day he sees the 99,religio ,medici99 in a shop-window 7or1 rather1 outside a shop-window1 for he would hesitate about entering a bookshop71 and he buys it1 by way of a mild experiment4 ,he does not expect to be enchanted by it2 a profound instinct tells him that ,sir ,thomas ,browne is not in his line2 and in the result he is even less enchanted than he expected to be4 ,he reads the introduction1 and he glances at the first page or two of the work4 ,he sees nothing but words4 ,the work makes no appeal to him whatever4 ,he is surrounded by trees1 and cannot perceive the forest4 ,he puts the book away4 ,if ,sir ,thomas ,browne is mentioned1 he will say1 ,yes1 very fine6 with a feeling of pride that he has at any rate bought and inspected ,sir ,thomas ,browne4 ,deep in his heart is a suspicion that people who get enthusiastic about ,sir ,thomas ,browne are vain and conceited 99poseurs994 ,after a year or so1 when he has recovered from the discouragement caused by ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 he may1 if he is young and hopeful1 repeat the experiment with ,congreve or ,addison4 ,same sequel6 ,and so on for perhaps a decade1 until his commerce with the classics finally expires6 ,that1 magazines and newish fiction apart1 is the literary history of the average decent person4 ,and even your case1 though you are genuinely preoccupied with thoughts of literature1 bears certain disturbing resemblances to the drab case of the average person4 ,you do not approach the classics with gusto-- anyhow1 not with the same gusto as you would approach a new novel by a modern author who had taken your fancy4 ,you never murmured to yourself1 when reading ,gibbon's 99,decline and ,fall99 in bed3 ,well1 ,i really must read one more chapter before ,i go to sleep6 ,speaking generally1 the classics do not afford you a pleasure commensurate with their renown4 ,you peruse them with a sense of duty1 a sense of doing the right thing1 a sense of improving yourself1 rather than with a sense of gladness4 ,you do not smack your lips2 you say3 ,that is good for me4 ,you make little plans for reading1 and then you invent excuses for breaking the plans4 ,something new1 something which is not a classic1 will surely draw you away from a classic4 ,it is all very well for you to pretend to agree with the verdict of the elect that 99,clarissa ,harlowe99 is one of the greatest novels in the world--a new ,kipling1 or even a new number of a magazine1 will cause you to neglect 99,clarissa ,harlowe991 just as though ,kipling1 etc41 could not be kept for a few days without turning sour6 ,so that you have to ordain rules for yourself1 as3 ,i will not read anything else until ,i have read ,richardson1 or ,gibbon1 for an hour each day4 ,thus proving that you regard a classic as a pill1 the swallowing of which merits jam6 ,and the more modern a classic is1 the more it resembles the stuff of the year and the less it resembles the classics of the centuries1 the more easy and enticing do you find that classic4 ,hence you are glad that ,george ,eliot1 the ,bronts1 ,thackeray1 are considered as classics1 because you really 99do99 enjoy them4 ,your sentiments concerning them approach your sentiments concerning a rattling good story in a magazine4 ,i may have exaggerated--or1 on the other hand1 ,i may have understated-- the unsatisfactory characteristics of your particular case1 but it is probable that in the mirror ,i hold up you recognise the rough outlines of your likeness4 ,you do not care to admit it2 but it is so4 ,you are not content with yourself4 ,the desire to be more truly literary persists in you4 ,you feel that there is something wrong in you1 but you cannot put your finger on the spot4 ,further1 you feel that you are a bit of a sham4 ,something within you continually forces you to exhibit for the classics an enthusiasm which you do not sincerely feel4 ,you even try to persuade yourself that you are enjoying a book1 when the next moment you drop it in the middle and forget to resume it4 ,you occasionally buy classical works1 and do not read them at all2 you practically decide that it is enough to possess them1 and that the mere possession of them gives you a 99cachet994 ,the truth is1 you are a sham4 ,and your soul is a sea of uneasy remorse4 ,you reflect3 ,according to what ,matthew ,arnold says1 ,i ought to be perfectly mad about ,wordsworth's 99,prelude994 ,and ,i am not4 ,why am ,i not8 ,have ,i got to be learned1 to undertake a vast course of study1 in order to be perfectly mad about ,wordsworth's 99,prelude998 ,or am ,i born without the faculty of pure taste in literature1 despite my vague longings8 ,i do wish ,i could smack my lips over ,wordsworth's 99,prelude99 as ,i did over that splendid story by ,h4 ,g4 ,wells1 99,the ,country of the ,blind991 in the 99,strand ,magazine996444 ,yes1 ,i am convinced that in your dissatisfied1 your diviner moments1 you address yourself in these terms4 ,i am convinced that ,i have diagnosed your symptoms4 ,now the enterprise of forming one's literary taste is an agreeable one2 if it is not agreeable it cannot succeed4 ,but this does not imply that it is an easy or a brief one4 ,the enterprise of beating ,colonel ,bogey at golf is an agreeable one1 but it means honest and regular work4 ,a fact to be borne in mind always6 ,you are certainly not going to realise your ambition--and so great1 so influential an ambition6--by spasmodic and half-hearted effort4 ,you must begin by making up your mind adequately4 ,you must rise to the height of the affair4 ,you must approach a grand undertaking in the grand manner4 ,you ought to mark the day in the calendar as a solemnity4 ,human nature is weak1 and has need of tricky aids1 even in the pursuit of happiness4 ,time will be necessary to you1 and time regularly and sacredly set apart4 ,many people affirm that they cannot be regular1 that regularity numbs them4 ,i think this is true of a very few people1 and that in the rest the objection to regularity is merely an attempt to excuse idleness4 ,i am inclined to think that you personally are capable of regularity4 ,and ,i am sure that if you firmly and constantly devote certain specific hours on certain specific days of the week to this business of forming your literary taste1 you will arrive at the goal much sooner4 ,the simple act of resolution will help you4 ,this is the first preliminary4 ,the second preliminary is to surround yourself with books1 to create for yourself a bookish atmosphere4 ,the merely physical side of books is important--more important than it may seem to the inexperienced4 ,theoretically 7save for works of reference71 a student has need for but one book at a time4 ,theoretically1 an amateur of literature might develop his taste by expending sixpence a week1 or a penny a day1 in one sixpenny edition of a classic after another sixpenny edition of a classic1 and he might store his library in a hat-box or a biscuit-tin4 ,but in practice he would have to be a monster of resolution to succeed in such conditions4 ,the eye must be flattered2 the hand must be flattered2 the sense of owning must be flattered4 ,sacrifices must be made for the acquisition of literature4 ,that which has cost a sacrifice is always endeared4 ,a detailed scheme of buying books will come later1 in the light of further knowledge4 ,for the present1 buy--buy whatever has received the 99imprimatur99 of critical authority4 ,buy without any immediate reference to what you will read4 ,buy6 ,surround yourself with volumes1 as handsome as you can afford4 ,and for reading1 all that ,i will now particularly enjoin is a general and inclusive tasting1 in order to attain a sort of familiarity with the look of literature in all its branches4 ,a turning over of the pages of a volume of ,chambers's 99,cyclopdia of ,english ,literature991 the third for preference1 may be suggested as an admirable and a diverting exercise4 ,you might mark the authors that flash an appeal to you4 ,chapter ,,iii ,,why ,a ,,classic ,,is ,a ,,classic ,the large majority of our fellow-citizens care as much about literature as they care about aeroplanes or the programme of the ,legislature4 ,they do not ignore it2 they are not quite indifferent to it4 ,but their interest in it is faint and perfunctory2 or1 if their interest happens to be violent1 it is spasmodic4 ,ask the two hundred thousand persons whose enthusiasm made the vogue of a popular novel ten years ago what they think of that novel now1 and you will gather that they have utterly forgotten it1 and that they would no more dream of reading it again than of reading ,bishop ,stubbs's 99,select ,charters994 ,probably if they did read it again they would not enjoy it--not because the said novel is a whit worse now than it was ten years ago2 not because their taste has improved--but because they have not had sufficient practice to be able to rely on their taste as a means of permanent pleasure4 ,they simply don't know from one day to the next what will please them4 ,in the face of this one may ask3 ,why does the great and universal fame of classical authors continue8 ,the answer is that the fame of classical authors is entirely independent of the majority4 ,do you suppose that if the fame of ,shakespeare depended on the man in the street it would survive a fortnight8 ,the fame of classical authors is originally made1 and it is maintained1 by a passionate few4 ,even when a first-class author has enjoyed immense success during his lifetime1 the majority have never appreciated him so sincerely as they have appreciated second-rate men4 ,he has always been reinforced by the ardour of the passionate few4 ,and in the case of an author who has emerged into glory after his death the happy sequel has been due solely to the obstinate perseverance of the few4 ,they could not leave him alone2 they would not4 ,they kept on savouring him1 and talking about him1 and buying him1 and they generally behaved with such eager zeal1 and they were so authoritative and sure of themselves1 that at last the majority grew accustomed to the sound of his name and placidly agreed to the proposition that he was a genius2 the majority really did not care very much either way4 ,and it is by the passionate few that the renown of genius is kept alive from one generation to another4 ,these few are always at work4 ,they are always rediscovering genius4 ,their curiosity and enthusiasm are exhaustless1 so that there is little chance of genius being ignored4 ,and1 moreover1 they are always working either for or against the verdicts of the majority4 ,the majority can make a reputation1 but it is too careless to maintain it4 ,if1 by accident1 the passionate few agree with the majority in a particular instance1 they will frequently remind the majority that such and such a reputation has been made1 and the majority will idly concur3 ,ah1 yes4 ,by the way1 we must not forget that such and such a reputation exists4 ,without that persistent memory-jogging the reputation would quickly fall into the oblivion which is death4 ,the passionate few only have their way by reason of the fact that they are genuinely interested in literature1 that literature matters to them4 ,they conquer by their obstinacy alone1 by their eternal repetition of the same statements4 ,do you suppose they could prove to the man in the street that ,shakespeare was a great artist8 ,the said man would not even understand the terms they employed4 ,but when he is told ten thousand times1 and generation after generation1 that ,shakespeare was a great artist1 the said man believes--not by reason1 but by faith4 ,and he too repeats that ,shakespeare was a great artist1 and he buys the complete works of ,shakespeare and puts them on his shelves1 and he goes to see the marvellous stage-effects which accompany 99,king ,lear99 or 99,hamlet991 and comes back religiously convinced that ,shakespeare was a great artist4 ,all because the passionate few could not keep their admiration of ,shakespeare to themselves4 ,this is not cynicism2 but truth4 ,and it is important that those who wish to form their literary taste should grasp it4 ,what causes the passionate few to make such a fuss about literature8 ,there can be only one reply4 ,they find a keen and lasting pleasure in literature4 ,they enjoy literature as some men enjoy beer4 ,the recurrence of this pleasure naturally keeps their interest in literature very much alive4 ,they are for ever making new researches1 for ever practising on themselves4 ,they learn to understand themselves4 ,they learn to know what they want4 ,their taste becomes surer and surer as their experience lengthens4 ,they do not enjoy to-day what will seem tedious to them to-morrow4 ,when they find a book tedious1 no amount of popular clatter will persuade them that it is pleasurable2 and when they find it pleasurable no chill silence of the street-crowds will affect their conviction that the book is good and permanent4 ,they have faith in themselves4 ,what are the qualities in a book which give keen and lasting pleasure to the passionate few8 ,this is a question so difficult that it has never yet been completely answered4 ,you may talk lightly about truth1 insight1 knowledge1 wisdom1 humour1 and beauty4 ,but these comfortable words do not really carry you very far1 for each of them has to be defined1 especially the first and last4 ,it is all very well for ,keats in his airy manner to assert that beauty is truth1 truth beauty1 and that that is all he knows or needs to know4 ,i1 for one1 need to know a lot more4 ,and ,i never shall know4 ,nobody1 not even ,hazlitt nor ,sainte-,beuve1 has ever finally explained why he thought a book beautiful4 ,i take the first fine lines that come to hand-- ,the woods of ,arcady are dead1 ,and over is their antique joy-- and ,i say that those lines are beautiful1 because they give me pleasure4 ,but why8 ,no answer6 ,i only know that the passionate few will1 broadly1 agree with me in deriving this mysterious pleasure from those lines4 ,i am only convinced that the liveliness of our pleasure in those and many other lines by the same author will ultimately cause the majority to believe1 by faith1 that ,w4 ,b4 ,yeats is a genius4 ,the one reassuring aspect of the literary affair is that the passionate few are passionate about the same things4 ,a continuance of interest does1 in actual practice1 lead ultimately to the same judgments4 ,there is only the difference in width of interest4 ,some of the passionate few lack catholicity1 or1 rather1 the whole of their interest is confined to one narrow channel2 they have none left over4 ,these men help specially to vitalise the reputations of the narrower geniuses3 such as ,crashaw4 ,but their active predilections never contradict the general verdict of the passionate few2 rather they reinforce it4 ,a classic is a work which gives pleasure to the minority which is intensely and permanently interested in literature4 ,it lives on because the minority1 eager to renew the sensation of pleasure1 is eternally curious and is therefore engaged in an eternal process of rediscovery4 ,a classic does not survive for any ethical reason4 ,it does not survive because it conforms to certain canons1 or because neglect would not kill it4 ,it survives because it is a source of pleasure1 and because the passionate few can no more neglect it than a bee can neglect a flower4 ,the passionate few do not read the right things because they are right4 ,that is to put the cart before the horse4 ,the right things are the right things solely because the passionate few 99like99 reading them4 ,hence--and ,i now arrive at my point-- the one primary essential to literary taste is a hot interest in literature4 ,if you have that1 all the rest will come4 ,it matters nothing that at present you fail to find pleasure in certain classics4 ,the driving impulse of your interest will force you to acquire experience1 and experience will teach you the use of the means of pleasure4 ,you do not know the secret ways of yourself3 that is all4 ,a continuance of interest must inevitably bring you to the keenest joys4 ,but1 of course1 experience may be acquired judiciously or injudiciously1 just as ,putney may be reached 99via99 ,walham ,green or 99via99 ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,chapter ,,iv ,,where ,,to ,,begin ,i wish particularly that my readers should not be intimidated by the apparent vastness and complexity of this enterprise of forming the literary taste4 ,it is not so vast nor so complex as it looks4 ,there is no need whatever for the inexperienced enthusiast to confuse and frighten himself with thoughts of literature in all its branches4 ,experts and pedagogues 7chiefly pedagogues7 have1 for the purpose of convenience1 split literature up into divisions and sub-divisions-- such as prose and poetry2 or imaginative1 philosophic1 historical2 or elegiac1 heroic1 lyric2 or religious and profane1 etc41 99ad infinitum994 ,but the greater truth is that literature is all one--and indivisible4 ,the idea of the unity of literature should be well planted and fostered in the head4 ,all literature is the expression of feeling1 of passion1 of emotion1 caused by a sensation of the interestingness of life4 ,what drives a historian to write history8 ,nothing but the overwhelming impression made upon him by the survey of past times4 ,he is forced into an attempt to reconstitute the picture for others4 ,if hitherto you have failed to perceive that a historian is a being in strong emotion1 trying to convey his emotion to others1 read the passage in the 99,memoirs99 of ,gibbon1 in which he describes how he finished the 99,decline and ,fall994 ,you will probably never again look upon the 99,decline and ,fall99 as a dry work4 ,what applies to history applies to the other dry branches4 ,even ,johnson's ,dictionary is packed with emotion4 ,read the last paragraph of the preface to it3 ,in this work1 when it shall be found that much is omitted1 let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed4444 ,it may repress the triumph of malignant criticism to observe that if our language is not here fully displayed1 ,i have only failed in an attempt which no human powers have hitherto completed4444 ,and so on to the close3 ,i have protracted my work till most of those whom ,i wish to please have sunk into the grave1 and success and miscarriage are empty sounds3 ,i therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity1 having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise4 ,yes1 tranquillity2 but not frigid6 ,the whole passage1 one of the finest in ,english prose1 is marked by the heat of emotion4 ,you may discover the same quality in such books as ,spencer's 99,first ,principles994 ,you may discover it everywhere in literature1 from the cold fire of ,pope's irony to the blasting temperatures of ,swinburne4 ,literature does not begin till emotion has begun4 ,there is even no essential1 definable difference between those two great branches1 prose and poetry4 ,for prose may have rhythm4 ,all that can be said is that verse will scan1 while prose will not4 ,the difference is purely formal4 ,very few poets have succeeded in being so poetical as ,isaiah1 ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 and ,ruskin have been in prose4 ,it can only be stated that1 as a rule1 writers have shown an instinctive tendency to choose verse for the expression of the very highest emotion4 ,the supreme literature is in verse1 but the finest achievements in prose approach so nearly to the finest achievements in verse that it is ill work deciding between them4 ,in the sense in which poetry is best understood1 all literature is poetry-- or is1 at any rate1 poetical in quality4 ,macaulay's ill-informed and unjust denunciations live because his genuine emotion made them into poetry1 while his 99,lays of ,ancient ,rome99 are dead because they are not the expression of a genuine emotion4 ,as the literary taste develops1 this quality of emotion1 restrained or loosed1 will be more and more widely perceived at large in literature4 ,it is the quality that must be looked for4 ,it is the quality that unifies literature 7and all the arts74 ,it is not merely useless1 it is harmful1 for you to map out literature into divisions and branches1 with different laws1 rules1 or canons4 ,the first thing is to obtain some possession of literature4 ,when you have actually felt some of the emotion which great writers have striven to impart to you1 and when your emotions become so numerous and puzzling that you feel the need of arranging them and calling them by names1 then--and not before--you can begin to study what has been attempted in the way of classifying and ticketing literature4 ,manuals and treatises are excellent things in their kind1 but they are simply dead weight at the start4 ,you can only acquire really useful general ideas by first acquiring particular ideas1 and putting those particular ideas together4 ,you cannot make bricks without straw4 ,do not worry about literature in the abstract1 about theories as to literature4 ,get at it4 ,get hold of literature in the concrete as a dog gets hold of a bone4 ,if you ask me where you ought to begin1 ,i shall gaze at you as ,i might gaze at the faithful animal if he inquired which end of the bone he ought to attack4 ,it doesn't matter in the slightest degree where you begin4 ,begin wherever the fancy takes you to begin4 ,literature is a whole4 ,there is only one restriction for you4 ,you must begin with an acknowledged classic2 you must eschew modern works4 ,the reason for this does not imply any depreciation of the present age at the expense of past ages4 ,indeed1 it is important1 if you wish ultimately to have a wide1 catholic taste1 to guard against the too common assumption that nothing modern will stand comparison with the classics4 ,in every age there have been people to sigh3 ,ah1 yes4 ,fifty years ago we had a few great writers4 ,but they are all dead1 and no young ones are arising to take their place4 ,this attitude of mind is deplorable1 if not silly1 and is a certain proof of narrow taste4 ,it is a surety that in #aiei gloomy and egregious persons will be saying3 ,ah1 yes4 ,at the beginning of the century there were great poets like ,swinburne1 ,meredith1 ,francis ,thompson1 and ,yeats4 ,great novelists like ,hardy and ,conrad4 ,great historians like ,stubbs and ,maitland1 etc41 etc4 ,but they are all dead now1 and whom have we to take their place8 ,it is not until an age has receded into history1 and all its mediocrity has dropped away from it1 that we can see it as it is--as a group of men of genius4 ,we forget the immense amount of twaddle that the great epochs produced4 ,the total amount of fine literature created in a given period of time differs from epoch to epoch1 but it does not differ much4 ,and we may be perfectly sure that our own age will make a favourable impression upon that excellent judge1 posterity4 ,therefore1 beware of disparaging the present in your own mind4 ,while temporarily ignoring it1 dwell upon the idea that its chaff contains about as much wheat as any similar quantity of chaff has contained wheat4 ,the reason why you must avoid modern works at the beginning is simply that you are not in a position to choose among modern works4 ,nobody at all is quite in a position to choose with certainty among modern works4 ,to sift the wheat from the chaff is a process that takes an exceedingly long time4 ,modern works have to pass before the bar of the taste of successive generations4 ,whereas1 with classics1 which have been through the ordeal1 almost the reverse is the case4 99,your taste has to pass before the bar of the classics499 ,that is the point4 ,if you differ with a classic1 it is you who are wrong1 and not the book4 ,if you differ with a modern work1 you may be wrong or you may be right1 but no judge is authoritative enough to decide4 ,your taste is unformed4 ,it needs guidance1 and it needs authoritative guidance4 ,into the business of forming literary taste faith enters4 ,you probably will not specially care for a particular classic at first4 ,if you did care for it at first1 your taste1 so far as that classic is concerned1 would be formed1 and our hypothesis is that your taste is not formed4 ,how are you to arrive at the stage of caring for it8 ,chiefly1 of course1 by examining it and honestly trying to understand it4 ,but this process is materially helped by an act of faith1 by the frame of mind which says3 ,i know on the highest authority that this thing is fine1 that it is capable of giving me pleasure4 ,hence ,i am determined to find pleasure in it4 ,believe me that faith counts enormously in the development of that wide taste which is the instrument of wide pleasures4 ,but it must be faith founded on unassailable authority4 ,chapter ,v ,,how ,,to ,,read ,a ,,classic ,let us begin experimental reading with ,charles ,lamb4 ,i choose ,lamb for various reasons3 ,he is a great writer1 wide in his appeal1 of a highly sympathetic temperament2 and his finest achievements are simple and very short4 ,moreover1 he may usefully lead to other and more complex matters1 as will appear later4 ,now1 your natural tendency will be to think of ,charles ,lamb as a book1 because he has arrived at the stage of being a classic4 ,charles ,lamb was a man1 not a book4 ,it is extremely important that the beginner in literary study should always form an idea of the man behind the book4 ,the book is nothing but the expression of the man4 ,the book is nothing but the man trying to talk to you1 trying to impart to you some of his feelings4 ,an experienced student will divine the man from the book1 will understand the man by the book1 as is1 of course1 logically proper4 ,but the beginner will do well to aid himself in understanding the book by means of independent information about the man4 ,he will thus at once relate the book to something human1 and strengthen in his mind the essential notion of the connection between literature and life4 ,the earliest literature was delivered orally direct by the artist to the recipient4 ,in some respects this arrangement was ideal4 ,changes in the constitution of society have rendered it impossible4 ,nevertheless1 we can still1 by the exercise of the imagination1 hear mentally the accents of the artist speaking to us4 ,we must so exercise our imagination as to feel the man behind the book4 ,some biographical information about ,lamb should be acquired4 ,there are excellent short biographies of him by ,canon ,ainger in the 99,dictionary of ,national ,biography991 in ,chambers's 99,encyclopdia991 and in ,chambers's 99,cyclopdia of ,english ,literature994 ,if you have none of these 7but you ought to have the last71 there are ,mr4 ,e4 ,v4 ,lucas's exhaustive 99,life99 7,methuen1 #gs4 #f;d471 and1 cheaper1 ,mr4 ,walter ,jerrold's 99,lamb99 7,bell and ,sons1 #as472 also introductory studies prefixed to various editions of ,lamb's works4 ,indeed1 the facilities for collecting materials for a picture of ,charles ,lamb as a human being are prodigious4 ,when you have made for yourself such a picture1 read the 99,essays of ,elia99 by the light of it4 ,i will choose one of the most celebrated1 99,dream ,children3 ,a ,reverie994 ,at this point1 kindly put my book down1 and read 99,dream ,children994 ,do not say to yourself that you will read it later1 but read it now4 ,when you have read it1 you may proceed to my next paragraph4 ,you are to consider 99,dream ,children99 as a human document4 ,lamb was nearing fifty when he wrote it4 ,you can see1 especially from the last line1 that the death of his elder brother1 ,john ,lamb1 was fresh and heavy on his mind4 ,you will recollect that in youth he had had a disappointing love-affair with a girl named ,ann ,simmons1 who afterwards married a man named ,bartrum4 ,you will know that one of the influences of his childhood was his grandmother ,field1 housekeeper of ,blakesware ,house1 in ,hertfordshire1 at which mansion he sometimes spent his holidays4 ,you will know that he was a bachelor1 living with his sister ,mary1 who was subject to homicidal mania4 ,and you will see in this essay1 primarily1 a supreme expression of the increasing loneliness of his life4 ,he constructed all that preliminary tableau of paternal pleasure in order to bring home to you in the most poignant way his feeling of the solitude of his existence1 his sense of all that he had missed and lost in the world4 ,the key of the essay is one of profound sadness4 ,but note that he makes his sadness beautiful2 or1 rather1 he shows the beauty that resides in sadness4 ,you watch him sitting there in his bachelor arm-chair1 and you say to yourself3 ,yes1 it was sad1 but it was somehow beautiful4 ,when you have said that to yourself1 ,charles ,lamb1 so far as you are concerned1 has accomplished his chief aim in writing the essay4 ,how exactly he produces his effect can never be fully explained4 ,but one reason of his success is certainly his regard for truth4 ,he does not falsely idealise his brother1 nor the relations between them4 ,he does not say1 as a sentimentalist would have said1 ,not the slightest cloud ever darkened our relations2 nor does he exaggerate his solitude4 ,being a sane man1 he has too much common-sense to assemble all his woes at once4 ,he might have told you that ,bridget was a homicidal maniac2 what he does tell you is that she was faithful4 ,another reason of his success is his continual regard for beautiful things and fine actions1 as illustrated in the major characteristics of his grandmother and his brother1 and in the detailed description of ,blakesware ,house and the gardens thereof4 ,then1 subordinate to the main purpose1 part of the machinery of the main purpose1 is the picture of the children--real children until the moment when they fade away4 ,the traits of childhood are accurately and humorously put in again and again3 ,here ,john smiled1 as much as to say1 ',that would be foolish indeed4' ,here little ,alice spread her hands4 ,here ,alice's little right foot played an involuntary movement1 till1 upon my looking grave1 it desisted4 ,here ,john expanded all his eyebrows1 and tried to look courageous4 ,here ,john slily deposited back upon the plate a bunch of grapes4 ,here the children fell a-crying444and prayed me to tell them some stories about their pretty dead mother4 ,and the exquisite3 ,here ,alice put out one of her dear mother's looks1 too tender to be upbraiding4 ,incidentally1 while preparing his ultimate solemn effect1 ,lamb has inspired you with a new1 intensified vision of the wistful beauty of children--their imitativeness1 their facile and generous emotions1 their anxiety to be correct1 their ingenuous haste to escape from grief into joy4 ,you can see these children almost as clearly and as tenderly as ,lamb saw them4 ,for days afterwards you will not be able to look upon a child without recalling ,lamb's portrayal of the grace of childhood4 ,he will have shared with you his perception of beauty4 ,if you possess children1 he will have renewed for you the charm which custom does very decidedly stale4 ,it is further to be noticed that the measure of his success in picturing the children is the measure of his success in his main effect4 ,the more real they seem1 the more touching is the revelation of the fact that they do not exist1 and never have existed4 ,and if you were moved by the reference to their pretty dead mother1 you will be still more moved when you learn that the girl who would have been their mother is not dead and is not ,lamb's4 ,as1 having read the essay1 you reflect upon it1 you will see how its emotional power over you has sprung from the sincere and unexaggerated expression of actual emotions exactly remembered by someone who had an eye always open for beauty1 who was1 indeed1 obsessed by beauty4 ,the beauty of old houses and gardens and aged virtuous characters1 the beauty of children1 the beauty of companionships1 the softening beauty of dreams in an arm-chair--all these are brought together and mingled with the grief and regret which were the origin of the mood4 ,why is 99,dream ,children99 a classic8 ,it is a classic because it transmits to you1 as to generations before you1 distinguished emotion1 because it makes you respond to the throb of life more intensely1 more justly1 and more nobly4 ,and it is capable of doing this because ,charles ,lamb had a very distinguished1 a very sensitive1 and a very honest mind4 ,his emotions were noble4 ,he felt so keenly that he was obliged to find relief in imparting his emotions4 ,and his mental processes were so sincere that he could neither exaggerate nor diminish the truth4 ,if he had lacked any one of these three qualities1 his appeal would have been narrowed and weakened1 and he would not have become a classic4 ,either his feelings would have been deficient in supreme beauty1 and therefore less worthy to be imparted1 or he would not have had sufficient force to impart them2 or his honesty would not have been equal to the strain of imparting them accurately4 ,in any case1 he would not have set up in you that vibration which we call pleasure1 and which is supereminently caused by vitalising participation in high emotion4 ,as ,lamb sat in his bachelor arm-chair1 with his brother in the grave1 and the faithful homicidal maniac by his side1 he really did think to himself1 ,this is beautiful4 ,sorrow is beautiful4 ,disappointment is beautiful4 ,life is beautiful4 99,i must tell them499 ,i must make them understand4 ,because he still makes you understand he is a classic4 ,and now ,i seem to hear you say1 ,but what about ,lamb's famous literary style8 ,where does that come in8 ,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,question ,,of ,,style ,in discussing the value of particular books1 ,i have heard people say-- people who were timid about expressing their views of literature in the presence of literary men3 ,it may be bad from a literary point of view1 but there are very good things in it4 ,or3 ,i dare say the style is very bad1 but really the book is very interesting and suggestive4 ,or3 ,i'm not an expert1 and so ,i never bother my head about good style4 ,all ,i ask for is good matter4 ,and when ,i have got it1 critics may say what they like about the book4 ,and many other similar remarks1 all showing that in the minds of the speakers there existed a notion that style is something supplementary to1 and distinguishable from1 matter2 a sort of notion that a writer who wanted to be classical had first to find and arrange his matter1 and then dress it up elegantly in a costume of style1 in order to please beings called literary critics4 ,this is a misapprehension4 ,style cannot be distinguished from matter4 ,when a writer conceives an idea he conceives it in a form of words4 ,that form of words constitutes his style1 and it is absolutely governed by the idea4 ,the idea can only exist in words1 and it can only exist in one form of words4 ,you cannot say exactly the same thing in two different ways4 ,slightly alter the expression1 and you slightly alter the idea4 ,surely it is obvious that the expression cannot be altered without altering the thing expressed6 ,a writer1 having conceived and expressed an idea1 may1 and probably will1 polish it up4 ,but what does he polish up8 ,to say that he polishes up his style is merely to say that he is polishing up his idea1 that he has discovered faults or imperfections in his idea1 and is perfecting it4 ,an idea exists in proportion as it is expressed2 it exists when it is expressed1 and not before4 ,it expresses itself4 ,a clear idea is expressed clearly1 and a vague idea vaguely4 ,you need but take your own case and your own speech4 ,for just as science is the development of common-sense1 so is literature the development of common daily speech4 ,the difference between science and common-sense is simply one of degree2 similarly with speech and literature4 ,well1 when you know what you think1 you succeed in saying what you think1 in making yourself understood4 ,when you don't know what to think1 your expressive tongue halts4 ,and note how in daily life the characteristics of your style follow your mood2 how tender it is when you are tender1 how violent when you are violent4 ,you have said to yourself in moments of emotion3 ,if only ,i could write--1 etc4 ,you were wrong4 ,you ought to have said3 ,if only ,i could 99think99-- on this high plane4 ,when you have thought clearly you have never had any difficulty in saying what you thought1 though you may occasionally have had some difficulty in keeping it to yourself4 ,and when you cannot express yourself1 depend upon it that you have nothing precise to express1 and that what incommodes you is not the vain desire to express1 but the vain desire to 99think99 more clearly4 ,all this just to illustrate how style and matter are co-existent1 and inseparable1 and alike4 ,you cannot have good matter with bad style4 ,examine the point more closely4 ,a man wishes to convey a fine idea to you4 ,he employs a form of words4 ,that form of words is his style4 ,having read1 you say3 ,yes1 this idea is fine4 ,the writer has therefore achieved his end4 ,but in what imaginable circumstances can you say3 ,yes1 this idea is fine1 but the style is not fine8 ,the sole medium of communication between you and the author has been the form of words4 ,the fine idea has reached you4 ,how8 ,in the words1 by the words4 ,hence the fineness must be in the words4 ,you may say1 superiorly3 ,he has expressed himself clumsily1 but ,i can 99see99 what he means4 ,by what light8 ,by something in the words1 in the style4 ,that something is fine4 ,moreover1 if the style is clumsy1 are you sure that you can see what he means8 ,you cannot be quite sure4 ,and at any rate1 you cannot see distinctly4 ,the matter is what actually reaches you1 and it must necessarily be affected by the style4 ,still further to comprehend what style is1 let me ask you to think of a writer's style exactly as you would think of the gestures and manners of an acquaintance4 ,you know the man whose demeanour is always calm1 but whose passions are strong4 ,how do you know that his passions are strong8 ,because he gives them away by some small1 but important1 part of his demeanour1 such as the twitching of a lip or the whitening of the knuckles caused by clenching the hand4 ,in other words1 his demeanour1 fundamentally1 is not calm4 ,you know the man who is always smoothly polite and agreeable1 but who affects you unpleasantly4 ,why does he affect you unpleasantly8 ,because he is tedious1 and therefore disagreeable1 and because his politeness is not real politeness4 ,you know the man who is awkward1 shy1 clumsy1 but who1 nevertheless1 impresses you with a sense of dignity and force4 ,why8 ,because mingled with that awkwardness and so forth 99is99 dignity4 ,you know the blunt1 rough fellow whom you instinctively guess to be affectionate-- because there is something in his tone or something in his eyes4 ,in every instance the demeanour1 while perhaps seeming to be contrary to the character1 is really in accord with it4 ,the demeanour never contradicts the character4 ,it is one part of the character that contradicts another part of the character4 ,for1 after all1 the blunt man 99is99 blunt1 and the awkward man 99is99 awkward1 and these characteristics are defects4 ,the demeanour merely expresses them4 ,the two men would be better if1 while conserving their good qualities1 they had the superficial attributes of smoothness and agreeableness possessed by the gentleman who is unpleasant to you4 ,and as regards this latter1 it is not his superficial attributes which are unpleasant to you2 but his other qualities4 ,in the end the character is shown in the demeanour2 and the demeanour is a consequence of the character and resembles the character4 ,so with style and matter4 ,you may argue that the blunt1 rough man's demeanour is unfair to his tenderness4 ,i do not think so4 ,for his churlishness is really very trying and painful1 even to the man's wife1 though a moment's tenderness will make her and you forget it4 ,the man really is churlish1 and much more often than he is tender4 ,his demeanour is merely just to his character4 ,so1 when a writer annoys you for ten pages and then enchants you for ten lines1 you must not explode against his style4 ,you must not say that his style won't let his matter come out4 ,you must remember the churlish1 tender man4 ,the more you reflect1 the more clearly you will see that faults and excellences of style are faults and excellences of matter itself4 ,one of the most striking illustrations of this neglected truth is ,thomas ,carlyle4 ,how often has it been said that ,carlyle's matter is marred by the harshness and the eccentricities of his style8 ,but ,carlyle's matter is harsh and eccentric to precisely the same degree as his style is harsh and eccentric4 ,carlyle was harsh and eccentric4 ,his behaviour was frequently ridiculous1 if it were not abominable4 ,his judgments were often extremely bizarre4 ,when you read one of ,carlyle's fierce diatribes1 you say to yourself3 ,this is splendid4 ,the man's enthusiasm for justice and truth is glorious4 ,but you also say3 ,he is a little unjust and a little untruthful4 ,he goes too far4 ,he lashes too hard4 ,these things are not the style2 they are the matter4 ,and when1 as in his greatest moments1 he is emotional and restrained at once1 you say3 ,this is the real ,carlyle4 ,kindly notice how perfect the style has become6 ,no harshnesses or eccentricities now6 ,and if that particular matter is the real ,carlyle1 then that particular style is ,carlyle's real style4 ,but when you say real you would more properly say best4 ,this is the best ,carlyle4 ,if ,carlyle had always been at his best he would have counted among the supreme geniuses of the world4 ,but he was a mixture4 ,his style is the expression of the mixture4 ,the faults are only in the style because they are in the matter4 ,you will find that1 in classical literature1 the style always follows the mood of the matter4 ,thus1 ,charles ,lamb's essay on 99,dream ,children99 begins quite simply1 in a calm1 narrative manner1 enlivened by a certain quippishness concerning the children4 ,the style is grave when great-grandmother ,field is the subject1 and when the author passes to a rather elaborate impression of the picturesque old mansion it becomes as it were consciously beautiful4 ,this beauty is intensified in the description of the still more beautiful garden4 ,but the real dividing point of the essay occurs when ,lamb approaches his elder brother4 ,he unmistakably marks the point with the phrase3 99,then1 in somewhat a more heightened tone991 ,i told how1 etc4 ,henceforward the style increases in fervour and in solemnity until the culmination of the essay is reached3 ,and while ,i stood gazing1 both the children gradually grew fainter to my view1 receding and still receding till nothing at last but two mournful features were seen in the uttermost distance1 which1 without speech1 strangely impressed upon me the effects of speech4444 ,throughout1 the style is governed by the matter4 ,well1 you say1 of course it is4 ,it couldn't be otherwise4 ,if it were otherwise it would be ridiculous4 ,a man who made love as though he were preaching a sermon1 or a man who preached a sermon as though he were teasing schoolboys1 or a man who described a death as though he were describing a practical joke1 must necessarily be either an ass or a lunatic4 ,just so4 ,you have put it in a nutshell4 ,you have disposed of the problem of style so far as it can be disposed of4 ,but what do those people mean who say3 ,i read such and such an author for the beauty of his style alone8 ,personally1 ,i do not clearly know what they mean 7and ,i have never been able to get them to explain71 unless they mean that they read for the beauty of sound alone4 ,when you read a book there are only three things of which you may be conscious3 7#a7 ,the significance of the words1 which is inseparably bound up with the thought4 7#b7 ,the look of the printed words on the page--,i do not suppose that anybody reads any author for the visual beauty of the words on the page4 7#c7 ,the sound of the words1 either actually uttered or imagined by the brain to be uttered4 ,now it is indubitable that words differ in beauty of sound4 ,to my mind one of the most beautiful words in the ,english language is pavement4 ,enunciate it1 study its sound1 and see what you think4 ,it is also indubitable that certain combinations of words have a more beautiful sound than certain other combinations4 ,thus ,tennyson held that the most beautiful line he ever wrote was3 ,the mellow ouzel fluting in the elm4 ,perhaps1 as sound1 it was4 ,assuredly it makes a beautiful succession of sounds1 and recalls the bird-sounds which it is intended to describe4 ,but does it live in the memory as one of the rare great ,tennysonian lines8 ,it does not4 ,it has charm1 but the charm is merely curious or pretty4 ,a whole poem composed of lines with no better recommendation than that line has would remain merely curious or pretty4 ,it would not permanently interest4 ,it would be as insipid as a pretty woman who had nothing behind her prettiness4 ,it would not live4 ,one may remark in this connection how the merely verbal felicities of ,tennyson have lost our esteem4 ,who will now proclaim the 99,idylls of the ,king99 as a masterpiece8 ,of the thousands of lines written by him which please the ear1 only those survive of which the matter is charged with emotion4 ,no6 ,as regards the man who professes to read an author for his style alone1 ,i am inclined to think either that he will soon get sick of that author1 or that he is deceiving himself and means the author's general temperament--not the author's verbal style1 but a peculiar quality which runs through all the matter written by the author4 ,just as one may like a man for something which is always coming out of him1 which one cannot define1 and which is of the very essence of the man4 ,in judging the style of an author1 you must employ the same canons as you use in judging men4 ,if you do this you will not be tempted to attach importance to trifles that are negligible4 ,there can be no lasting friendship without respect4 ,if an author's style is such that you cannot 99respect99 it1 then you may be sure that1 despite any present pleasure which you may obtain from that author1 there is something wrong with his matter1 and that the pleasure will soon cloy4 ,you must examine your sentiments towards an author4 ,if when you have read an author you are pleased1 without being conscious of aught but his mellifluousness1 just conceive what your feelings would be after spending a month's holiday with a merely mellifluous man4 ,if an author's style has pleased you1 but done nothing except make you giggle1 then reflect upon the ultimate tediousness of the man who can do nothing but jest4 ,on the other hand1 if you are impressed by what an author has said to you1 but are aware of verbal clumsinesses in his work1 you need worry about his bad style exactly as much and exactly as little as you would worry about the manners of a kindhearted1 keen-brained friend who was dangerous to carpets with a tea-cup in his hand4 ,the friend's antics in a drawing-room are somewhat regrettable1 but you would not say of him that his manners were bad4 ,again1 if an author's style dazzles you instantly and blinds you to everything except its brilliant self1 ask your soul1 before you begin to admire his matter1 what would be your final opinion of a man who at the first meeting fired his personality into you like a broadside4 ,reflect that1 as a rule1 the people whom you have come to esteem communicated themselves to you gradually1 that they did not begin the entertainment with fireworks4 ,in short1 look at literature as you would look at life1 and you cannot fail to perceive that1 essentially1 the style is the man4 ,decidedly you will never assert that you care nothing for style1 that your enjoyment of an author's matter is unaffected by his style4 ,and you will never assert1 either1 that style alone suffices for you4 ,if you are undecided upon a question of style1 whether leaning to the favourable or to the unfavourable1 the most prudent course is to forget that literary style exists4 ,for1 indeed1 as style is understood by most people who have not analysed their impressions under the influence of literature1 there 99is99 no such thing as literary style4 ,you cannot divide literature into two elements and say3 ,this is matter and that style4 ,further1 the significance and the worth of literature are to be comprehended and assessed in the same way as the significance and the worth of any other phenomenon3 by the exercise of common-sense4 ,common-sense will tell you that nobody1 not even a genius1 can be simultaneously vulgar and distinguished1 or beautiful and ugly1 or precise and vague1 or tender and harsh4 ,and common-sense will therefore tell you that to try to set up vital contradictions between matter and style is absurd4 ,when there is a superficial contradiction1 one of the two mutually-contradicting qualities is of far less importance than the other4 ,if you refer literature to the standards of life1 common-sense will at once decide which quality should count heaviest in your esteem4 ,you will be in no danger of weighing a mere maladroitness of manner against a fine trait of character1 or of letting a graceful deportment blind you to a fundamental vacuity4 ,when in doubt1 ignore style1 and think of the matter as you would think of an individual4 ,chapter ,,vii ,,wrestling ,,with ,,an ,,author ,having disposed1 so far as is possible and necessary1 of that formidable question of style1 let us now return to ,charles ,lamb1 whose essay on 99,dream ,children99 was the originating cause of our inquiry into style4 ,as we have made a beginning of ,lamb1 it will be well to make an end of him4 ,in the preliminary stages of literary culture1 nothing is more helpful1 in the way of kindling an interest and keeping it well alight1 than to specialise for a time on one author1 and particularly on an author so frankly and curiously human as ,lamb is4 ,i do not mean that you should imprison yourself with ,lamb's complete works for three months1 and read nothing else4 ,i mean that you should regularly devote a proportion of your learned leisure to the study of ,lamb until you are acquainted with all that is important in his work and about his work4 7,you may buy the complete works in prose and verse of ,charles and ,mary ,lamb1 edited by that unsurpassed expert ,mr4 ,thomas ,hutchison1 and published by the ,oxford ,university ,press1 in two volumes for four shillings the pair67 ,there is no reason why you should not become a modest specialist in ,lamb4 ,he is the very man for you2 neither voluminous1 nor difficult1 nor uncomfortably lofty2 always either amusing or touching2 and--most important-- himself passionately addicted to literature4 ,you cannot like ,lamb without liking literature in general4 ,and you cannot read ,lamb without learning about literature in general2 for books were his hobby1 and he was a critic of the first rank4 ,his letters are full of literariness4 ,you will naturally read his letters2 you should not only be infinitely diverted by them 7there are no better epistles71 but you should receive from them much light on the works4 ,it is a course of study that ,i am suggesting to you4 ,it means a certain amount of sustained effort4 ,it means slightly more resolution1 more pertinacity1 and more expenditure of brain-tissue than are required for reading a newspaper4 ,it means1 in fact1 work4 ,perhaps you did not bargain for work when you joined me4 ,but ,i do not think that the literary taste can be satisfactorily formed unless one is prepared to put one's back into the affair4 ,and ,i may prophesy to you1 by way of encouragement1 that1 in addition to the advantages of familiarity with masterpieces1 of increased literary knowledge1 and of a wide introduction to the true bookish atmosphere and feel of things1 which you will derive from a comprehensive study of ,charles ,lamb1 you will also be conscious of a moral advantage--the very important and very inspiring advantage of really knowing something about something4 ,you will have achieved a definite step2 you will be proudly aware that you have put yourself in a position to judge as an expert whatever you may hear or read in the future concerning ,charles ,lamb4 ,this legitimate pride and sense of accomplishment will stimulate you to go on further2 it will generate steam4 ,i consider that this indirect moral advantage even outweighs1 for the moment1 the direct literary advantages4 ,now1 ,i shall not shut my eyes to a possible result of your diligent intercourse with ,charles ,lamb4 ,it is possible that you may be disappointed with him4 ,it is--shall ,i say8-- almost probable that you will be disappointed with him1 at any rate partially4 ,you will have expected more joy in him than you have received4 ,i have referred in a previous chapter to the feeling of disappointment which often comes from first contacts with the classics4 ,the neophyte is apt to find them--,i may as well out with the word--dull4 ,you may have found ,lamb less diverting1 less interesting1 than you hoped4 ,you may have had to whip yourself up again and again to the effort of reading him4 ,in brief1 ,lamb has not1 for you1 justified his terrific reputation4 ,if a classic is a classic because it gives 99pleasure99 to succeeding generations of the people who are most keenly interested in literature1 and if ,lamb frequently strikes you as dull1 then evidently there is something wrong4 ,the difficulty must be fairly fronted1 and the fronting of it brings us to the very core of the business of actually forming the taste4 ,if your taste were classical you would discover in ,lamb a continual fascination2 whereas what you in fact do discover in ,lamb is a not unpleasant flatness1 enlivened by a vague humour and an occasional pathos4 ,you ought1 according to theory1 to be enthusiastic2 but you are apathetic1 or1 at best1 half-hearted4 ,there is a gulf4 ,how to cross it8 ,to cross it needs time and needs trouble4 ,the following considerations may aid4 ,in the first place1 we have to remember that1 in coming into the society of the classics in general and of ,charles ,lamb in particular1 we are coming into the society of a mental superior4 ,what happens usually in such a case8 ,we can judge by recalling what happens when we are in the society of a mental inferior4 ,we say things of which he misses the import2 we joke1 and he does not smile2 what makes him laugh loudly seems to us horseplay or childish2 he is blind to beauties which ravish us2 he is ecstatic over what strikes us as crude2 and his profound truths are for us trite commonplaces4 ,his perceptions are relatively coarse2 our perceptions are relatively subtle4 ,we try to make him understand1 to make him see1 and if he is aware of his inferiority we may have some success4 ,but if he is not aware of his inferiority1 we soon hold our tongues and leave him alone in his self-satisfaction1 convinced that there is nothing to be done with him4 ,every one of us has been through this experience with a mental inferior1 for there is always a mental inferior handy1 just as there is always a being more unhappy than we are4 ,in approaching a classic1 the true wisdom is to place ourselves in the position of the mental inferior1 aware of mental inferiority1 humbly stripping off all conceit1 anxious to rise out of that inferiority4 ,recollect that we always regard as quite hopeless the mental inferior who does not suspect his own inferiority4 ,our attitude towards ,lamb must be3 ,charles ,lamb was a greater man than ,i am1 cleverer1 sharper1 subtler1 finer1 intellectually more powerful1 and with keener eyes for beauty4 ,i must brace myself to follow his lead4 ,our attitude must resemble that of one who cocks his ear and listens with all his soul for a distant sound4 ,to catch the sound we really must listen4 ,that is to say1 we must read carefully1 with our faculties on the watch4 ,we must read slowly and perseveringly4 ,a classic has to be wooed and is worth the wooing4 ,further1 we must disdain no assistance4 ,i am not in favour of studying criticism of classics before the classics themselves4 ,my notion is to study the work and the biography of a classical writer together1 and then to read criticism afterwards4 ,i think that in reprints of the classics the customary critical introduction ought to be put at the end1 and not at the beginning1 of the book4 ,the classic should be allowed to make his own impression1 however faint1 on the virginal mind of the reader4 ,but afterwards let explanatory criticism be read as much as you please4 ,explanatory criticism is very useful2 nearly as useful as pondering for oneself on what one has read6 ,explanatory criticism may throw one single gleam that lights up the entire subject4 ,my second consideration 7in aid of crossing the gulf7 touches the quality of the pleasure to be derived from a classic4 ,it is never a violent pleasure4 ,it is subtle1 and it will wax in intensity1 but the idea of violence is foreign to it4 ,the artistic pleasures of an uncultivated mind are generally violent4 ,they proceed from exaggeration in treatment1 from a lack of balance1 from attaching too great an importance to one aspect 7usually superficial71 while quite ignoring another4 ,they are gross1 like the joy of ,worcester sauce on the palate4 ,now1 if there is one point common to all classics1 it is the absence of exaggeration4 ,the balanced sanity of a great mind makes impossible exaggeration1 and1 therefore1 distortion4 ,the beauty of a classic is not at all apt to knock you down4 ,it will steal over you1 rather4 ,many serious students are1 ,i am convinced1 discouraged in the early stages because they are expecting a wrong kind of pleasure4 ,they have abandoned ,worcester sauce1 and they miss it4 ,they miss the coarse 99tang994 ,they must realise that indulgence in the 99tang99 means the sure and total loss of sensitiveness--sensitiveness even to the 99tang99 itself4 ,they cannot have crudeness and fineness together4 ,they must choose1 remembering that while crudeness kills pleasure1 fineness ever intensifies it4 ,chapter ,,viii ,,system ,,in ,,reading ,you have now definitely set sail on the sea of literature4 ,you are afloat1 and your anchor is up4 ,i think ,i have given adequate warning of the dangers and disappointments which await the unwary and the sanguine4 ,the enterprise in which you are engaged is not facile1 nor is it short4 ,i think ,i have sufficiently predicted that you will have your hours of woe1 during which you may be inclined to send to perdition all writers1 together with the inventor of printing4 ,but if you have become really friendly with ,lamb2 if you know ,lamb1 or even half of him2 if you have formed an image of him in your mind1 and can1 as it were1 hear him brilliantly stuttering while you read his essays or letters1 then certainly you are in a fit condition to proceed and you want to know in which direction you are to proceed4 ,yes1 ,i have caught your terrified and protesting whisper3 ,i hope to heaven he isn't going to prescribe a ,course of ,english ,literature1 because ,i feel ,i shall never be able to do it6 ,i am not4 ,if your object in life was to be a ,university ,extension ,lecturer in ,english literature1 then ,i should prescribe something drastic and desolating4 ,but as your object1 so far as ,i am concerned1 is simply to obtain the highest and most tonic form of artistic pleasure of which you are capable1 ,i shall not prescribe any regular course4 ,nay1 ,i shall venture to dissuade you from any regular course4 ,no man1 and assuredly no beginner1 can possibly pursue a historical course of literature without wasting a lot of weary time in acquiring mere knowledge which will yield neither pleasure nor advantage4 ,in the choice of reading the individual must count2 caprice must count1 for caprice is often the truest index to the individuality4 ,stand defiantly on your own feet1 and do not excuse yourself to yourself4 ,you do not exist in order to honour literature by becoming an encyclopdia of literature4 ,literature exists for your service4 ,wherever you happen to be1 that1 for you1 is the centre of literature4 ,still1 for your own sake you must confine yourself for a long time to recognised classics1 for reasons already explained4 ,and though you should not follow a course1 you must have a system or principle4 ,your native sagacity will tell you that caprice1 left quite unfettered1 will end by being quite ridiculous4 ,the system which ,i recommend is embodied in this counsel3 ,let one thing lead to another4 ,in the sea of literature every part communicates with every other part2 there are no land-locked lakes4 ,it was with an eye to this system that ,i originally recommended you to start with ,lamb4 ,lamb1 if you are his intimate1 has already brought you into relations with a number of other prominent writers with whom you can in turn be intimate1 and who will be particularly useful to you4 ,among these are ,wordsworth1 ,coleridge1 ,southey1 ,hazlitt1 and ,leigh ,hunt4 ,you cannot know ,lamb without knowing these men1 and some of them are of the highest importance4 ,from the circle of ,lamb's own work you may go off at a tangent at various points1 according to your inclination4 ,if1 for instance1 you are drawn towards poetry1 you cannot1 in all ,english literature1 make a better start than with ,wordsworth4 ,and ,wordsworth will send you backwards to a comprehension of the poets against whose influence ,wordsworth fought4 ,when you have understood ,wordsworth's and ,coleridge's 99,lyrical ,ballads991 and ,wordsworth's defence of them1 you will be in a position to judge poetry in general4 ,if1 again1 your mind hankers after an earlier and more romantic literature1 ,lamb's 99,specimens of ,english ,dramatic ,poets ,contemporary with ,shakspere99 has already1 in an enchanting fashion1 piloted you into a vast gulf of the sea which is ,shakspere4 ,again1 in ,hazlitt and ,leigh ,hunt you will discover essayists inferior only to ,lamb himself1 and critics perhaps not inferior4 ,hazlitt is unsurpassed as a critic4 ,his judgments are convincing and his enthusiasm of the most catching nature4 ,having arrived at ,hazlitt or ,leigh ,hunt1 you can branch off once more at any one of ten thousand points into still wider circles4 ,and thus you may continue up and down the centuries as far as you like1 yea1 even to ,chaucer4 ,if you chance to read ,hazlitt on 99,chaucer and ,spenser991 you will probably put your hat on instantly and go out and buy these authors2 such is his communicating fire6 ,i need not particularise further4 ,commencing with ,lamb1 and allowing one thing to lead to another1 you cannot fail to be more and more impressed by the peculiar suitability to your needs of the ,lamb entourage and the ,lamb period4 ,for ,lamb lived in a time of universal rebirth in ,english literature4 ,wordsworth and ,coleridge were re-creating poetry2 ,scott was re-creating the novel2 ,lamb was re-creating the human document2 and ,hazlitt1 ,coleridge1 ,leigh ,hunt1 and others were re-creating criticism4 ,sparks are flying all about the place1 and it will be not less than a miracle if something combustible and indestructible in you does not take fire4 ,i have only one cautionary word to utter4 ,you may be saying to yourself3 ,so long as ,i stick to classics ,i cannot go wrong4 ,you can go wrong4 ,you can1 while reading naught but very fine stuff1 commit the grave error of reading too much of one kind of stuff4 ,now there are two kinds1 and only two kinds4 ,these two kinds are not prose and poetry1 nor are they divided the one from the other by any differences of form or of subject4 ,they are the inspiring kind and the informing kind4 ,no other genuine division exists in literature4 ,emerson1 ,i think1 first clearly stated it4 ,his terms were the literature of power and the literature of knowledge4 ,in nearly all great literature the two qualities are to be found in company1 but one usually predominates over the other4 ,an example of the exclusively inspiring kind is ,coleridge's 99,kubla ,khan994 ,i cannot recall any first-class example of the purely informing kind4 ,the nearest approach to it that ,i can name is ,spencer's 99,first ,principles991 which1 however1 is at least once highly inspiring4 ,an example in which the inspiring quality predominates is 99,ivanhoe992 and an example in which the informing quality predominates is ,hazlitt's essays on ,shakespeare's characters4 ,you must avoid giving undue preference to the kind in which the inspiring quality predominates or to the kind in which the informing quality predominates4 ,too much of the one is enervating2 too much of the other is desiccating4 ,if you stick exclusively to the one you may become a mere debauchee of the emotions2 if you stick exclusively to the other you may cease to live in any full sense4 ,i do not say that you should hold the balance exactly even between the two kinds4 ,your taste will come into the scale4 ,what ,i say is that neither kind must be neglected4 ,lamb is an instance of a great writer whom anybody can understand and whom a majority of those who interest themselves in literature can more or less appreciate4 ,he makes no excessive demand either on the intellect or on the faculty of sympathetic emotion4 ,on both sides of ,lamb1 however1 there lie literatures more difficult1 more recondite4 ,the knowledge side need not detain us here2 it can be mastered by concentration and perseverance4 ,but the power side1 which comprises the supreme productions of genius1 demands special consideration4 ,you may have arrived at the point of keenly enjoying ,lamb and yet be entirely unable to see anything in such writings as 99,kubla ,khan99 or ,milton's 99,comus992 and as for 99,hamlet99 you may see nothing in it but a sanguinary tale full of quotations4 ,nevertheless it is the supreme productions which are capable of yielding the supreme pleasures1 and which 99will99 yield the supreme pleasures when the pass-key to them has been acquired4 ,this pass-key is a comprehension of the nature of poetry4 ,chapter ,,ix ,,verse ,there is a word1 a name of fear1 which rouses terror in the heart of the vast educated majority of the ,english-speaking race4 ,the most valiant will fly at the mere utterance of that word4 ,the most broad-minded will put their backs up against it4 ,the most rash will not dare to affront it4 ,i myself have seen it empty buildings that had been full2 and ,i know that it will scatter a crowd more quickly than a hose-pipe1 hornets1 or the rumour of plague4 ,even to murmur it is to incur solitude1 probably disdain1 and possibly starvation1 as historical examples show4 ,that word is poetry4 ,the profound objection of the average man to poetry can scarcely be exaggerated4 ,and when ,i say the average man1 ,i do not mean the average sensual man--any man who gets on to the top of the omnibus2 ,i mean the average lettered man1 the average man who does care a little for books and enjoys reading1 and knows the classics by name and the popular writers by having read them4 ,i am convinced that not one man in ten who reads1 reads poetry--at any rate1 knowingly4 ,i am convinced1 further1 that not one man in ten who goes so far as knowingly to 99buy99 poetry ever reads it4 ,you will find everywhere men who read very widely in prose1 but who will say quite callously1 ,no1 ,i never read poetry4 ,if the sales of modern poetry1 distinctly labelled as such1 were to cease entirely to-morrow not a publisher would fail2 scarcely a publisher would be affected2 and not a poet would die--for ,i do not believe that a single modern ,english poet is living to-day on the current proceeds of his verse4 ,for a country which possesses the greatest poetical literature in the world this condition of affairs is at least odd4 ,what makes it odder is that1 occasionally1 very occasionally1 the average lettered man will have a fit of idolatry for a fine poet1 buying his books in tens of thousands1 and bestowing upon him immense riches4 ,as with ,tennyson4 ,and what makes it odder still is that1 after all1 the average lettered man does not truly dislike poetry2 he only dislikes it when it takes a certain form4 ,he will read poetry and enjoy it1 provided he is not aware that it is poetry4 ,poetry can exist authentically either in prose or in verse4 ,give him poetry concealed in prose and there is a chance that1 taken off his guard1 he will appreciate it4 ,but show him a page of verse1 and he will be ready to send for a policeman4 ,the reason of this is that1 though poetry may come to pass either in prose or in verse1 it does actually happen far more frequently in verse than in prose2 nearly all the very greatest poetry is in verse2 verse is identified with the very greatest poetry1 and the very greatest poetry can only be understood and savoured by people who have put themselves through a considerable mental discipline4 ,to others it is an exasperating weariness4 ,hence chiefly the fearful prejudice of the average lettered man against the mere form of verse4 ,the formation of literary taste cannot be completed until that prejudice has been conquered4 ,my very difficult task is to suggest a method of conquering it4 ,i address myself exclusively to the large class of people who1 if they are honest1 will declare that1 while they enjoy novels1 essays1 and history1 they cannot stand verse4 ,the case is extremely delicate1 like all nervous cases4 ,it is useless to employ the arts of reasoning1 for the matter has got beyond logic2 it is instinctive4 ,perfectly futile to assure you that verse will yield a higher percentage of pleasure than prose6 ,you will reply3 ,we believe you1 but that doesn't help us4 ,therefore ,i shall not argue4 ,i shall venture to prescribe a curative treatment 7doctors do not argue72 and ,i beg you to follow it exactly1 keeping your nerve and your calm4 ,loss of self-control might lead to panic1 and panic would be fatal4 ,first3 ,forget as completely as you can all your present notions about the nature of verse and poetry4 ,take a sponge and wipe the slate of your mind4 ,in particular1 do not harass yourself by thoughts of metre and verse forms4 ,second3 ,read ,william ,hazlitt's essay ,on ,poetry in ,general4 ,this essay is the first in the book entitled 99,lectures on the ,english ,poets994 ,it can be bought in various forms4 ,i think the cheapest satisfactory edition is in ,routledge's ,new ,universal ,library 7price #as4 net74 ,i might have composed an essay of my own on the real harmless nature of poetry in general1 but it could only have been an echo and a deterioration of ,hazlitt's4 ,he has put the truth about poetry in a way as interesting1 clear1 and reassuring as anyone is ever likely to put it4 ,i do not expect1 however1 that you will instantly gather the full message and enthusiasm of the essay4 ,it will probably seem to you not to hang together4 ,still1 it will leave bright bits of ideas in your mind4 ,third3 ,after a week's interval read the essay again4 ,on a second perusal it will appear more persuasive to you4 ,fourth3 ,open the ,bible and read the fortieth chapter of ,isaiah4 ,it is the chapter which begins1 ,comfort ye1 comfort ye1 my people1 and ends1 ,they shall run and not be weary1 and they shall walk and not faint4 ,this chapter will doubtless be more or less familiar to you4 ,it cannot fail 7whatever your particular 99ism997 to impress you1 to generate in your mind sensations which you recognise to be of a lofty and unusual order1 and which you will admit to be pleasurable4 ,you will probably agree that the result of reading this chapter 7even if your particular 99ism99 is opposed to its authority7 is finer than the result of reading a short story in a magazine or even an essay by ,charles ,lamb4 ,now the pleasurable sensations induced by the fortieth chapter of ,isaiah are among the sensations usually induced by high-class poetry4 ,the writer of it was a very great poet1 and what he wrote is a very great poem4 ,fifth3 ,after having read it1 go back to ,hazlitt1 and see if you can find anything in ,hazlitt's lecture which throws light on the psychology of your own emotions upon reading ,isaiah4 ,sixth3 ,the next step is into unmistakable verse4 ,it is to read one of ,wordsworth's short narrative poems1 99,the ,brothers994 ,there are editions of ,wordsworth at a shilling1 but ,i should advise the ,golden ,treasury ,wordsworth 7#bs4 #f;d4 net71 because it contains the famous essay by ,matthew ,arnold1 who made the selection4 ,i want you to read this poem aloud4 ,you will probably have to hide yourself somewhere in order to do so1 for1 of course1 you would not1 as yet1 care to be overheard spouting poetry4 ,be good enough to forget that 99,the ,brothers99 is poetry4 99,the ,brothers99 is a short story1 with a plain1 clear plot4 ,read it as such4 ,read it simply for the story4 ,it is very important at this critical stage that you should not embarrass your mind with preoccupations as to the 99form99 in which ,wordsworth has told his story4 ,wordsworth's object was to tell a story as well as he could3 just that4 ,in reading aloud do not pay any more attention to the metre than you feel naturally inclined to pay4 ,after a few lines the metre will present itself to you4 ,do not worry as to what kind of metre it is4 ,when you have finished the perusal1 examine your sensations4444 ,your sensations after reading this poem1 and perhaps one or two other narrative poems of ,wordsworth1 such as 99,michael991 will be different from the sensations produced in you by reading an ordinary1 or even a very extraordinary1 short story in prose4 ,they may not be so sharp1 so clear and piquant1 but they will probably be1 in their mysteriousness and their vagueness1 more impressive4 ,i do not say that they will be diverting4 ,i do not go so far as to say that they will strike you as pleasing sensations4 7,be it remembered that ,i am addressing myself to an imaginary tyro in poetry47 ,i would qualify them as being disturbing4 ,well1 to disturb the spirit is one of the greatest aims of art4 ,and a disturbance of spirit is one of the finest pleasures that a highly-organised man can enjoy4 ,but this truth can only be really learnt by the repetitions of experience4 ,as an aid to the more exhaustive examination of your feelings under ,wordsworth1 in order that you may better understand what he was trying to effect in you1 and the means which he employed1 ,i must direct you to ,wordsworth himself4 ,wordsworth1 in addition to being a poet1 was unsurpassed as a critic of poetry4 ,what ,hazlitt does for poetry in the way of creating enthusiasm ,wordsworth does in the way of philosophic explanation4 ,and ,wordsworth's explanations of the theory and practice of poetry are written for the plain man4 ,they pass the comprehension of nobody1 and their direct1 unassuming1 and calm simplicity is extremely persuasive4 ,wordsworth's chief essays in throwing light on himself are the ,advertisement1 ,preface1 and ,appendix to 99,lyrical ,ballads992 the letters to ,lady ,beaumont and the ,friend and the ,preface to the ,poems dated #ahae4 ,all this matter is strangely interesting and of immense educational value4 ,it is the first-class expert talking at ease about his subject4 ,the essays relating to 99,lyrical ,ballads99 will be the most useful for you4 ,you will discover these precious documents in a volume entitled 99,wordsworth's ,literary ,criticism99 7published by ,henry ,frowde1 #bs4 #f;d471 edited by that distinguished ,wordsworthian ,mr4 ,nowell ,c4 ,smith4 ,it is essential that the student of poetry should become possessed1 honestly or dishonestly1 either of this volume or of the matter which it contains4 ,there is1 by the way1 a volume of ,wordsworth's prose in the ,scott ,library 7#as474 ,those who have not read ,wordsworth on poetry can have no idea of the nave charm and the helpful radiance of his expounding4 ,i feel that ,i cannot too strongly press ,wordsworth's criticism upon you4 ,between ,wordsworth and ,hazlitt you will learn all that it behoves you to know of the nature1 the aims1 and the results of poetry4 ,it is no part of my scheme to dot the i's and cross the t's of ,wordsworth and ,hazlitt4 ,i best fulfil my purpose in urgently referring you to them4 ,i have only a single point of my own to make-- a psychological detail4 ,one of the main obstacles to the cultivation of poetry in the average sensible man is an absurdly inflated notion of the ridiculous4 ,at the bottom of that man's mind is the idea that poetry is silly4 ,he also finds it exaggerated and artificial2 but these two accusations against poetry can be satisfactorily answered4 ,the charge of silliness1 of being ridiculous1 however1 cannot be refuted by argument4 ,there is no logical answer to a guffaw4 ,this sense of the ridiculous is merely a bad1 infantile habit1 in itself grotesquely ridiculous4 ,you may see it particularly in the theatre4 ,not the greatest dramatist1 not the greatest composer1 not the greatest actor can prevent an audience from laughing uproariously at a tragic moment if a cat walks across the stage4 ,but why ruin the scene by laughter8 ,simply because the majority of any audience is artistically childish4 ,this sense of the ridiculous can only be crushed by the exercise of moral force4 ,it can only be cowed4 ,if you are inclined to laugh when a poet expresses himself more powerfully than you express yourself1 when a poet talks about feelings which are not usually mentioned in daily papers1 when a poet uses words and images which lie outside your vocabulary and range of thought1 then you had better take yourself in hand4 ,you have to decide whether you will be on the side of the angels or on the side of the nincompoops4 ,there is no surer sign of imperfect development than the impulse to snigger at what is unusual1 nave1 or exuberant4 ,and if you choose to do so1 you can detect the cat walking across the stage in the sublimest passages of literature4 ,but more advanced souls will grieve for you4 ,the study of ,wordsworth's criticism makes the seventh step in my course of treatment4 ,the eighth is to return to those poems of ,wordsworth's which you have already perused1 and read them again in the full light of the author's defence and explanation4 ,read as much ,wordsworth as you find you can assimilate1 but do not attempt either of his long poems4 ,the time1 however1 is now come for a long poem4 ,i began by advising narrative poetry for the neophyte1 and ,i shall persevere with the prescription4 ,i mean narrative poetry in the restricted sense2 for epic poetry is narrative4 99,paradise ,lost99 is narrative2 so is 99,the ,prelude994 ,i suggest neither of these great works4 ,my choice falls on ,elizabeth ,browning's 99,aurora ,leigh994 ,if you once work yourself into this poem1 interesting yourself primarily 7as with ,wordsworth7 in the events of the story1 and not allowing yourself to be obsessed by the fact that what you are reading is poetry--if you do this1 you are not likely to leave it unfinished4 ,and before you reach the end you will have encountered 99en route99 pretty nearly all the moods of poetry that exist3 tragic1 humorous1 ironic1 elegiac1 lyric--everything4 ,you will have a comprehensive acquaintance with a poet's mind4 ,i guarantee that you will come safely through if you treat the work as a novel4 ,for a novel it effectively is1 and a better one than any written by ,charlotte ,bront or ,george ,eliot4 ,in reading1 it would be well to mark1 or take note of1 the passages which give you the most pleasure1 and then to compare these passages with the passages selected for praise by some authoritative critic4 99,aurora ,leigh99 can be got in the ,temple ,classics 7#as4 #f;d471 or in the ,canterbury ,poets 7#as474 ,the indispensable biographical information about ,mrs4 ,browning can be obtained from ,mr4 ,j4 ,h4 ,ingram's short ,life of her in the ,eminent ,women ,series 7#as4 #f;d471 or from 99,robert ,browning991 by ,william ,sharp 7,great ,writers ,series1 #as474 ,this accomplished1 you may begin to choose your poets4 ,going back to ,hazlitt1 you will see that he deals with1 among others1 ,chaucer1 ,spenser1 ,shakespeare1 ,milton1 ,dryden1 ,pope1 ,chatterton1 ,burns1 and the ,lake ,school4 ,you might select one of these1 and read under his guidance4 ,said ,wordsworth3 ,i was impressed by the conviction that there were four ,english poets whom ,i must have continually before me as examples--,chaucer1 ,shakespeare1 ,spenser1 and ,milton4 7,a word to the wise67 ,wordsworth makes a fifth to these four4 ,concurrently with the careful1 enthusiastic study of one of the undisputed classics1 modern verse should be read4 7,i beg you to accept the following statement3 that if the study of classical poetry inspires you with a distaste for modern poetry1 then there is something seriously wrong in the method of your development47 ,you may at this stage 7and not before7 commence an inquiry into questions of rhythm1 verse-structure1 and rhyme4 ,there is1 ,i believe1 no good1 concise1 cheap handbook to ,english prosody2 yet such a manual is greatly needed4 ,the only one with which ,i am acquainted is ,tom ,hood the younger's 99,rules of ,rhyme3 ,a ,guide to ,english ,versification994 ,again1 the introduction to ,walker's 99,rhyming ,dictionary99 gives a fairly clear elementary account of the subject4 ,ruskin also has written an excellent essay on verse-rhythms4 ,with a manual in front of you1 you can acquire in a couple of hours a knowledge of the formal principles in which the music of ,english verse is rooted4 ,the business is trifling4 ,but the business of appreciating the inmost spirit of the greatest verse is tremendous and lifelong4 ,it is not something that can be got up4 ,chapter ,x ,,broad ,,counsels ,i have now set down what appear to me to be the necessary considerations1 recommendations1 exhortations1 and dehortations in aid of this delicate and arduous enterprise of forming the literary taste4 ,i have dealt with the theory of literature1 with the psychology of the author1 and--quite as important--with the psychology of the reader4 ,i have tried to explain the author to the reader and the reader to himself4 ,to go into further detail would be to exceed my original intention1 with no hope of ever bringing the constantly-enlarging scheme to a logical conclusion4 ,my aim is not to provide a map1 but a compass--two very different instruments4 ,in the way of general advice it remains for me only to put before you three counsels which apply more broadly than any ,i have yet offered to the business of reading4 ,you have within yourself a touchstone by which finally you can1 and you must1 test every book that your brain is capable of comprehending4 ,does the book seem to you to be sincere and true8 ,if it does1 then you need not worry about your immediate feelings1 or the possible future consequences of the book4 ,you will ultimately like the book1 and you will be justified in liking it4 ,honesty1 in literature as in life1 is the quality that counts first and counts last4 ,but beware of your immediate feelings4 ,truth is not always pleasant4 ,the first glimpse of truth is1 indeed1 usually so disconcerting as to be positively unpleasant1 and our impulse is to tell it to go away1 for we will have no truck with it4 ,if a book arouses your genuine contempt1 you may dismiss it from your mind4 ,take heed1 however1 lest you confuse contempt with anger4 ,if a book really moves you to anger1 the chances are that it is a good book4 ,most good books have begun by causing anger which disguised itself as contempt4 ,demanding honesty from your authors1 you must see that you render it yourself4 ,and to be honest with oneself is not so simple as it appears4 ,one's sensations and one's sentiments must be examined with detachment4 ,when you have violently flung down a book1 listen whether you can hear a faint voice saying within you3 ,it's true1 though6 ,and if you catch the whisper1 better yield to it as quickly as you can4 ,for sooner or later the voice will win4 ,similarly1 when you are hugging a book1 keep your ear cocked for the secret warning3 ,yes1 but it isn't true4 ,for bad books1 by flattering you1 by caressing1 by appealing to the weak or the base in you1 will often persuade you what fine and splendid books they are4 7,of course1 ,i use the word true in a wide and essential significance4 ,i do not necessarily mean true to literal fact2 ,i mean true to the plane of experience in which the book moves4 ,the truthfulness of 99,ivanhoe991 for example1 cannot be estimated by the same standards as the truthfulness of ,stubbs's 99,constitutional ,history9947 ,in reading a book1 a sincere questioning of oneself1 ,is it true8 and a loyal abiding by the answer1 will help more surely than any other process of ratiocination to form the taste4 ,i will not assert that this question and answer are all-sufficient4 ,a true book is not always great4 ,but a great book is never untrue4 ,my second counsel is3 ,in your reading you must have in view some definite aim--some aim other than the wish to derive pleasure4 ,i conceive that to give pleasure is the highest end of any work of art1 because the pleasure procured from any art is tonic1 and transforms the life into which it enters4 ,but the maximum of pleasure can only be obtained by regular effort1 and regular effort implies the organisation of that effort4 ,open-air walking is a glorious exercise2 it is the walking itself which is glorious4 ,nevertheless1 when setting out for walking exercise1 the sane man generally has a subsidiary aim in view4 ,he says to himself either that he will reach a given point1 or that he will progress at a given speed for a given distance1 or that he will remain on his feet for a given time4 ,he organises his effort1 partly in order that he may combine some other advantage with the advantage of walking1 but principally in order to be sure that the effort shall be an adequate effort4 ,the same with reading4 ,your paramount aim in poring over literature is to enjoy1 but you will not fully achieve that aim unless you have also a subsidiary aim which necessitates the measurement of your energy4 ,your subsidiary aim may be sthetic1 moral1 political1 religious1 scientific1 erudite2 you may devote yourself to a man1 a topic1 an epoch1 a nation1 a branch of literature1 an idea--you have the widest latitude in the choice of an objective2 but a definite objective you must have4 ,in my earlier remarks as to method in reading1 ,i advocated1 without insisting on1 regular hours for study4 ,but ,i both advocate and insist on the fixing of a date for the accomplishment of an allotted task4 ,as an instance1 it is not enough to say3 ,i will inform myself completely as to the ,lake ,school4 ,it is necessary to say3 ,i will inform myself completely as to the ,lake ,school before ,i am a year older4 ,without this precautionary steeling of the resolution the risk of a humiliating collapse into futility is enormously magnified4 ,my third counsel is3 ,buy a library4 ,it is obvious that you cannot read unless you have books4 ,i began by urging the constant purchase of books-- any books of approved quality1 without reference to their immediate bearing upon your particular case4 ,the moment has now come to inform you plainly that a bookman is1 amongst other things1 a man who possesses many books4 ,a man who does not possess many books is not a bookman4 ,for years literary authorities have been favouring the literary public with wondrously selected lists of the best books--the best novels1 the best histories1 the best poems1 the best works of philosophy--or the hundred best or the fifty best of all sorts4 ,the fatal disadvantage of such lists is that they leave out large quantities of literature which is admittedly first-class4 ,the bookman cannot content himself with a selected library4 ,he wants1 as a minimum1 a library reasonably complete in all departments4 ,with such a basis acquired1 he can afterwards wander into those special byways of book-buying which happen to suit his special predilections4 ,every ,englishman who is interested in any branch of his native literature1 and who respects himself1 ought to own a comprehensive and inclusive library of ,english literature1 in comely and adequate editions4 ,you may suppose that this counsel is a counsel of perfection4 ,it is not4 ,mark ,pattison laid down a rule that he who desired the name of book-lover must spend five per cent4 of his income on books4 ,the proposal does not seem extravagant1 but even on a smaller percentage than five the average reader of these pages may become the owner1 in a comparatively short space of time1 of a reasonably complete ,english library1 by which ,i mean a library containing the complete works of the supreme geniuses1 representative important works of all the first-class men in all departments1 and specimen works of all the men of the second rank whose reputation is really a living reputation to-day4 ,the scheme for a library1 which ,i now present1 begins before ,chaucer and ends with ,george ,gissing1 and ,i am fairly sure that the majority of people will be startled at the total inexpensiveness of it4 ,so far as ,i am aware1 no such scheme has ever been printed before4 ,chapter ,,xi ,,an ,,english ,,library3 ,,period ,i99 799,for much counsel and correction in the matter of editions and prices ,i am indebted to my old and valued friend1 ,charles ,young1 head of the firm of ,lamley ,co41 booksellers1 ,south ,kensington47 ,for the purposes of book-buying1 ,i divide ,english literature1 not strictly into historical epochs1 but into three periods which1 while scarcely arbitrary from the historical point of view1 have nevertheless been calculated according to the space which they will occupy on the shelves and to the demands which they will make on the purse3 ,i4 ,from the beginning to ,john ,dryden1 or roughly1 to the end of the seventeenth century4 ,,ii4 ,from ,william ,congreve to ,jane ,austen1 or roughly1 the eighteenth century4 ,,iii4 ,from ,sir ,walter ,scott to the last deceased author who is recognised as a classic1 or roughly1 the nineteenth century4 ,period ,,iii4 will bulk the largest and cost the most2 not necessarily because it contains more absolutely great books than the other periods 7though in my opinion it 99does9971 but because it is nearest to us1 and therefore fullest of interest for us4 ,i have not confined my choice to books of purely literary interest-- that is to say1 to works which are primarily works of literary art4 ,literature is the vehicle of philosophy1 science1 morals1 religion1 and history2 and a library which aspires to be complete must comprise1 in addition to imaginative works1 all these branches of intellectual activity4 ,comprising all these branches1 it cannot avoid comprising works of which the purely literary interest is almost nil4 ,on the other hand1 ,i have excluded from consideration3-- i4 ,works whose sole importance is that they form a link in the chain of development4 ,for example1 nearly all the productions of authors between ,chaucer and the beginning of the ,elizabethan period1 such as ,gower1 ,hoccleve1 and ,skelton1 whose works1 for sufficient reason1 are read only by professors and students who mean to be professors4 ii4 ,works not originally written in ,english1 such as the works of that very great philosopher ,roger ,bacon1 of whom this isle ought to be prouder than it is4 ,to this rule1 however1 ,i have been constrained to make a few exceptions4 ,sir ,thomas ,more's 99,utopia99 was written in ,latin1 but one does not easily conceive a library to be complete without it4 ,and could one exclude ,sir ,isaac ,newton's 99,principia991 the masterpiece of the greatest physicist that the world has ever seen8 ,the law of gravity ought to have1 and does have1 a powerful sentimental interest for us4 iii4 ,translations from foreign literature into ,english4 ,here1 then1 are the lists for the first period3 ,,prose ,,writers s4 d4 ,bede1 99,ecclesiastical ,history399 ,temple ,classics #j #a #f ,sir ,thomas ,malory1 99,morte d',arthur399 ,everyman's ,library 7#d vols47 #j #d #j ,sir ,thomas ,more1 99,utopia399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,george ,cavendish1 99,life of ,cardinal ,wolsey399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,richard ,hakluyt1 99,voyages399 ,everyman's ,library 7#h vols47 #j #h #j ,richard ,hooker1 99,ecclesiastical ,polity399 ,everyman's ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,,francis ,,bacon1 99,works399 ,newnes's ,thin-paper ,classics #j #b #j ,thomas ,dekker1 99,gull's ,horn-,book399 ,king's ,classics #j #a #f ,lord ,herbert of ,cherbury1 99,autobiography399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,john ,selden1 99,table-,talk399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,thomas ,hobbes1 99,leviathan399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,james ,howell1 99,familiar ,letters399 ,temple ,classics 7#c vols47 #j #d #f ,,sir ,,thomas ,,browne1 99,religio ,medici991 etc43 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,jeremy ,taylor1 99,holy ,living and ,holy ,dying399 ,temple ,classics 7#c vols47 #j #d #f ,izaak ,walton1 99,compleat ,angler399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,,john ,,bunyan1 99,pilgrim's ,progress399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,sir ,william ,temple1 99,essay on ,gardens of ,epicurus399 ,king's ,classics #j #a #f ,john ,evelyn1 99,diary399 ,everyman's ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,samuel ,pepys1 99,diary399 ,everyman's ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j #b #a #f ,the principal omission from the above list is 99,the ,paston ,letters991 which ,i should probably have included had the enterprise of publishers been sufficient to put an edition on the market at a cheap price4 ,other omissions include the works of ,caxton and ,wyclif1 and such books as ,camden's 99,britannia991 ,ascham's 99,schoolmaster991 and ,fuller's 99,worthies991 whose lack of first-rate value as literature is not adequately compensated by their historical interest4 ,as to the ,bible1 in the first place it is a translation1 and in the second ,i assume that you already possess a copy4 ,,poets4 s4 d4 99,beowulf991 ,routledge's ,london ,library #j #b #f ,,geoffrey ,,chaucer1 99,works399 ,globe ,edition #j #c #f ,nicolas ,udall1 99,ralph ,roister-,doister399 ,temple ,dramatists #j #a #j ,,edmund ,,spenser1 99,works399 ,globe ,edition #j #c #f ,thomas ,lodge1 99,rosalynde399 ,caxton ,series #j #a #j ,robert ,greene1 99,tragical ,reign of ,selimus399 ,temple ,dramatists #j #a #j ,michael ,drayton1 99,poems399 ,newnes's ,pocket ,classics #j #c #f ,,christopher ,,marlowe1 99,works399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,,william ,,shakespeare1 99,works399 ,globe ,edition #j #c #f ,thomas ,campion1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,ben ,jonson1 99,plays399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,john ,donne1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,john ,webster1 ,cyril ,tourneur1 99,plays399 ,mermaid ,series #j #b #f ,philip ,massinger1 99,plays399 ,cunningham ,edition #j #c #f ,beaumont and ,fletcher1 99,plays3 a ,selection399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,john ,ford1 99,plays399 ,mermaid ,series #j #b #f ,george ,herbert1 99,the ,temple399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,,robert ,,herrick1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,edmund ,waller1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,sir ,john ,suckling1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,abraham ,cowley1 99,english ,poems399 ,cambridge ,university ,press #j #d #f ,richard ,crashaw1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,henry ,vaughan1 99,poems399 ,methuen's ,little ,library #j #a #f ,samuel ,butler1 99,hudibras399 ,cambridge ,university ,press #j #d #f ,,john ,,milton1 99,poetical ,works399 ,oxford ,cheap ,edition #j #b #j ,,john ,,milton1 99,select ,prose ,works399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,andrew ,marvell1 99,poems399 ,methuen's ,little ,library #j #a #f ,john ,dryden1 99,poetical ,works399 ,globe ,edition #j #c #f ,thomas ,percy1 99,reliques of ,ancient ,english ,poetry399 ,everyman's ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,arber's 99,spenser ,anthology399 ,oxford ,university ,press #j #b #j ,arber's 99,jonson ,anthology399 ,oxford ,university ,press #j #b #j ,arber's 99,shakspere ,anthology399 ,oxford ,university ,press #j #b #j #c #g #f ,there were a number of brilliant minor writers in the seventeenth century whose best work1 often trifling in bulk1 either scarcely merits the acquisition of a separate volume for each author1 or cannot be obtained at all in a modern edition4 ,such authors1 however1 may not be utterly neglected in the formation of a library4 ,it is to meet this difficulty that ,i have included the last three volumes on the above list4 ,professor ,arber's anthologies are full of rare pieces1 and comprise admirable specimens of the verse of ,samuel ,daniel1 ,giles ,fletcher1 ,countess of ,pembroke1 ,james ,i41 ,george ,peele1 ,sir ,walter ,raleigh1 ,thomas ,sackville1 ,sir ,philip ,sidney1 ,drummond of ,hawthornden1 ,thomas ,heywood1 ,george ,wither1 ,sir ,henry ,wotton1 ,sir ,william ,davenant1 ,thomas ,randolph1 ,frances ,quarles1 ,james ,shirley1 and other greater and lesser poets4 ,i have included all the important ,elizabethan dramatists except ,john ,marston1 all the editions of whose works1 according to my researches1 are out of print4 ,in the ,elizabethan and ,jacobean periods talent was so extraordinarily plentiful that the standard of excellence is quite properly raised1 and certain authors are thus relegated to the third1 or excluded1 class who in a less fertile period would have counted as at least second-class4 ,,summary ,,of ,,the ,,first ,,period4 s4 d4 #ai prose authors in #cf volumes costing #b #a #f #bi poets in #cf #c #g #f #dh #gb #e #i #j ,in addition1 scores of authors of genuine interest are represented in the anthologies4 ,the prices given are gross1 and in many instances there is a #be per cent4 discount to come off4 ,all the volumes can be procured immediately at any bookseller's4 ,chapter ,,xii ,,an ,,english ,,library3 ,,period ,,ii ,after dealing with the formation of a library of authors up to ,john ,dryden1 ,i must logically arrange next a scheme for the period covered roughly by the eighteenth century4 ,there is1 however1 no reason why the student in quest of a library should follow the chronological order4 ,indeed1 ,i should advise him to attack the nineteenth century before the eighteenth1 for the reason that1 unless his taste happens to be peculiarly ,augustan1 he will obtain a more immediate satisfaction and profit from his acquisitions in the nineteenth century than in the eighteenth4 ,there is in eighteenth-century literature a considerable proportion of what ,i may term unattractive excellence1 which one must have for the purposes of completeness1 but which may await actual perusal until more pressing and more human books have been read4 ,i have particularly in mind the philosophical authors of the century4 ,,prose ,,writers4 s4 d4 ,,john ,,locke1 99,philosophical ,works399 ,bohn's ,edition 7#b vols47 #j #g #j ,,sir ,,isaac ,,newton1 99,principia99 7sections #a1 #b1 and #c73 ,macmillan's #j #ab #j ,gilbert ,burnet1 99,history of ,his ,own ,time399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,william ,wycherley1 99,best ,plays399 ,mermaid ,series #j #b #f ,,william ,,congreve1 99,best ,plays399 ,mermaid ,series #j #b #f ,jonathan ,swift1 99,tale of a ,tub399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,jonathan ,swift1 99,gulliver's ,travels399 ,temple ,classics #j #a #f ,,daniel ,,defoe1 99,robinson ,crusoe399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,,daniel ,,defoe1 99,journal of the ,plague ,year399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,joseph ,addison1 ,sir ,richard ,steele1 99,essays399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,william ,law1 99,serious ,call399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,lady ,mary ,w4 ,montagu1 99,letters399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,george ,berkeley1 99,principles of ,human ,knowledge399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,,samuel ,,richardson1 99,clarissa99 7abridged73 ,routledge's ,edition #j #b #j ,john ,wesley1 99,journal399 ,everyman's ,library 7#d vols47 #j #d #j ,,henry ,,fielding1 99,tom ,jones399 ,routledge's ,edition #j #b #j ,,henry ,,fielding1 99,amelia399 ,routledge's ,edition #j #b #j ,,henry ,,fielding1 99,joseph ,andrews399 ,routledge's ,edition #j #b #j ,david ,hume1 99,essays399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,,laurence ,,sterne1 99,tristram ,shandy399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,,laurence ,,sterne1 99,sentimental ,journey399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,horace ,walpole1 99,castle of ,otranto399 ,king's ,classics #j #a #f ,tobias ,smollett1 99,humphrey ,clinker399 ,routledge's ,edition #j #b #j ,tobias ,smollett1 99,travels through ,france and ,italy399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,,adam ,,smith1 99,wealth of ,nations399 ,world's ,classics 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,samuel ,johnson1 99,lives of the ,poets399 ,world's ,classics 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,samuel ,johnson1 99,rasselas399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,,james ,,boswell1 99,life of ,johnson399 ,everyman's ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,oliver ,goldsmith1 99,works399 ,globe ,edition #j #c #f ,henry ,mackenzie1 99,the ,man of ,feeling399 ,cassell's ,national ,library #j #j #f ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds1 99,discourses on ,art399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,edmund ,burke1 99,reflections on the ,french ,revolution399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,edmund ,burke1 99,thoughts on the ,present ,discontents399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,,edward ,,gibbon1 99,decline and ,fall of the ,roman ,empire399 ,world's ,classics 7#g vols47 #j #g #j ,thomas ,paine1 99,rights of ,man399 ,watts and ,co4's ,edition #j #a #j ,,richard ,,brinsley ,,sheridan1 99,plays399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,fanny ,burney1 99,evelina399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,gilbert ,white1 99,natural ,history of ,selborne399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,arthur ,young1 99,travels in ,france399 ,york ,library #j #b #j ,mungo ,park1 99,travels399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,jeremy ,bentham1 99,introduction to the ,principles of ,morals399 ,clarendon ,press #j #f #f ,,thomas ,,robert ,,malthus1 99,essay on the ,principle of ,population399 ,ward1 ,lock's ,edition #j #c #f ,william ,godwin1 99,caleb ,williams399 ,newnes's ,edition #j #a #j ,maria ,edgeworth1 99,helen399 ,macmillan's ,illustrated ,edition #j #b #f ,,jane ,,austen1 99,novels399 ,nelson's ,new ,century ,library 7#b vols47 #j #d #j ,james ,morier1 99,hadji ,baba399 ,macmillan's ,illustrated ,novels #j #b #f #e #a #j ,the principal omissions here are ,jeremy ,collier1 whose outcry against the immorality of the stage is his slender title to remembrance2 ,richard ,bentley1 whose scholarship principally died with him1 and whose chief works are no longer current2 and ,junius1 who would have been deservedly forgotten long ago had there been a contemporaneous ,sherlock ,holmes to ferret out his identity4 ,,poets4 s4 d4 ,thomas ,otway1 99,venice ,preserved399 ,temple ,dramatists #j #a #j ,matthew ,prior1 99,poems on ,several ,occasions399 ,cambridge ,english ,classics #j #d #f ,john ,gay1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,,alexander ,,pope1 99,works399 ,globe ,edition #j #c #f ,isaac ,watts1 99,hymns399 ,any hymn-book #j #a #j ,james ,thomson1 99,the ,seasons399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,charles ,wesley1 99,hymns399 ,any hymn-book #j #a #j ,,thomas ,,gray1 ,samuel ,johnson1 ,william ,collins1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,james ,macpherson 7,ossian71 99,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,,thomas ,,chatterton1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,,william ,,cowper1 99,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,,william ,,cowper1 99,letters399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,george ,crabbe1 99,poems399 ,methuen's ,little ,library #j #a #f ,,william ,,blake1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,william ,lisle ,bowles1 ,hartley ,coleridge1 99,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,,robert ,,burns1 99,works399 ,globe ,edition #j #c #f #a #g #j ,,summary ,,of ,,the ,,period4 s4 d4 #ci prose-writers in #fj volumes1 costing #e #a #j #ah poets #ah #a #g #j #eg #gh #f #h #j ,chapter ,,xiii ,,an ,,english ,,library3 ,,period ,,iii ,the catalogue of necessary authors of this third and last period being so long1 it is convenient to divide the prose writers into ,imaginative and ,non-imaginative4 ,in the latter half of the period the question of copyright affects our scheme to a certain extent1 because it affects prices4 ,fortunately it is the fact that no single book of recognised first-rate general importance is conspicuously dear4 ,nevertheless1 ,i have encountered difficulties in the second rank2 ,i have dealt with them in a spirit of compromise4 ,i think ,i may say that1 though ,i should have included a few more authors had their books been obtainable at a reasonable price1 ,i have omitted none that ,i consider indispensable to a thoroughly representative collection4 ,no living author is included4 ,where ,i do not specify the edition of a book the original copyright edition is meant4 ,,prose ,,writers3 ,,imaginative4 s4 d4 ,,sir ,,walter ,,scott1 99,waverley1 ,heart of ,midlothian1 ,quentin ,durward1 ,redgauntlet1 ,ivanhoe399 ,everyman's ,library 7#e vols47 #j #e #j ,,sir ,,walter ,,scott1 99,marmion991 etc43 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,charles ,lamb1 99,works in ,prose and ,verse399 ,clarendon ,press 7#b vols47 #j #d #j ,charles ,lamb1 99,letters399 ,newnes's ,thin-,paper ,classics #j #b #j ,walter ,savage ,landor1 99,imaginary ,conversations399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,walter ,savage ,landor1 99,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,leigh ,hunt1 99,essays and ,sketches399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,thomas ,love ,peacock1 99,principal ,novels399 ,new ,universal ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,mary ,russell ,mitford1 99,our ,village399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,michael ,scott1 99,tom ,cringle's ,log399 ,macmillan's ,illustrated ,novels #j #b #f ,frederick ,marryat1 99,mr4 ,midshipman ,easy399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,john ,galt1 99,annals of the ,parish399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,susan ,ferrier1 99,marriage399 ,routledge's edition #j #b #j ,douglas ,jerrold1 99,mrs4 ,caudle's ,curtain ,lectures399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,lord ,lytton1 99,last ,days of ,pompeii399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,william ,carleton1 99,stories399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,charles ,james ,lever1 99,harry ,lorrequer399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,harrison ,ainsworth1 99,the ,tower of ,london399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,george ,henry ,borrow1 99,bible in ,spain1 ,lavengro399 ,new ,universal ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,lord ,beaconsfield1 99,sybil1 ,coningsby399 ,lane's ,new ,pocket ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,w4 ,m4 ,,thackeray1 99,vanity ,fair1 ,esmond399 ,everyman's ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,w4 ,m4 ,,thackeray1 99,barry ,lyndon991 and 99,roundabout ,papers991 etc43 ,nelson's ,new ,century ,library #j #b #j ,,charles ,,dickens1 99,works399 ,everyman's ,library 7#ah vols47 #j #ah #j ,charles ,reade1 99,the ,cloister and the ,hearth399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,anthony ,trollope1 99,barchester ,towers1 ,framley ,parsonage399 ,lane's ,new ,pocket ,library 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,charles ,kingsley1 99,westward ,ho6399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,henry ,kingsley1 99,ravenshoe399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,charlotte ,bront1 99,jane ,eyre1 ,shirley1 ,villette1 ,professor1 and ,poems399 ,world's ,classics 7#d vols47 #j #d #j ,emily ,bront1 99,wuthering ,heights399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,elizabeth ,gaskell1 99,cranford399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,elizabeth ,gaskell1 99,life of ,charlotte ,bront99 #j #b #f ,george ,eliot1 99,adam ,bede1 ,silas ,marner1 ,the ,mill on the ,floss399 ,everyman's ,library 7#c vols47 #j #c #j ,g4 ,j4 ,whyte-,melville1 99,the ,gladiators399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,alexander ,smith1 99,dreamthorpe399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,george ,macdonald1 99,malcolm99 #j #a #f ,walter ,pater1 99,imaginary ,portraits99 #j #f #j ,wilkie ,collins1 99,the ,woman in ,white99 #j #a #j ,r4 ,d4 ,blackmore1 99,lorna ,doone399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,samuel ,butler1 99,erewhon399 ,fifield's ,edition #j #b #f ,laurence ,oliphant1 99,altiora ,peto99 #j #c #f ,margaret ,oliphant1 99,salem ,chapel399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,richard ,jefferies1 99,story of ,my ,heart99 #j #b #j ,lewis ,carroll1 99,alice in ,wonderland399 ,macmillan's ,cheap ,edition #j #a #j ,john ,henry ,shorthouse1 99,john ,inglesant399 ,macmillan's ,pocket ,classics #j #b #j ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson1 99,master of ,ballantrae1 ,virginibus ,puerisque399 ,pocket ,edition 7#b vols47 #j #d #j ,george ,gissing1 99,the ,odd ,women399 ,popular ,edition 7bound7 #j #j #g #e #j #a ,names such as those of ,charlotte ,yonge and ,dinah ,craik are omitted intentionally4 ,,prose ,,writers3 ,,non-,,imaginative4 s4 d4 ,william ,hazlitt1 99,spirit of the ,age399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,william ,hazlitt1 99,english ,poets and ,comic ,writers399 ,bohn's ,library #j #c #f ,francis ,jeffrey1 99,essays from ,edinburgh ,review399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,thomas de ,quincey1 99,confessions of an ,english ,opium-eater991 etc43 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,sydney ,smith1 99,selected ,papers399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,george ,finlay1 99,byzantine ,empire399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,john ,g4 ,lockhart1 99,life of ,scott399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,agnes ,strickland1 99,life of ,queen ,elizabeth399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,hugh ,miller1 99,old ,red ,sandstone399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,j4 ,h4 ,newman1 99,apologia pro vita sua399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,lord ,macaulay1 99,history of ,england991 7#c71 99,essays99 7#b73 ,everyman's ,library 7#e vols47 #j #e #j ,a4 ,p4 ,stanley1 99,memorials of ,canterbury399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,,thomas ,,carlyle1 99,french ,revolution99 7#b71 99,cromwell99 7#c71 99,sartor ,resartus and ,heroes and ,hero-,worship99 7#a73 ,everyman's ,library 7#f vols47 #j #f #j ,,thomas ,,carlyle1 99,latter-day ,pamphlets399 ,chapman and ,hall's ,edition #j #a #j ,,charles ,,darwin1 99,origin of ,species399 ,murray's ,edition #j #a #j ,,charles ,,darwin1 99,voyage of the ,beagle399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,a4 ,w4 ,kinglake1 99,eothen399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,john ,stuart ,mill1 99,auguste ,comte and ,positivism399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,john ,brown1 99,hor ,subseciv399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,john ,brown1 99,rab and ,his ,friends399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,sir ,arthur ,helps1 99,friends in ,council399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,mark ,pattison1 99,life of ,milton399 ,english ,men of ,letters ,series #j #a #j ,f4 ,w4 ,robertson1 99,on ,religion and ,life399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,benjamin ,jowett1 99,interpretation of ,scripture399 ,routledge's ,london ,library #j #b #f ,george ,henry ,lewes1 99,principles of ,success in ,literature399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,alexander ,bain1 99,mind and ,body99 #j #d #j ,james ,anthony ,froude1 99,dissolution of the ,monasteries991 etc43 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,mary ,wollstonecraft1 99,vindication of the ,rights of ,women399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,john ,tyndall1 99,glaciers of the ,alps399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,sir ,henry ,maine1 99,ancient ,law399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,,john ,,ruskin1 99,seven ,lamps99 7#a71 99,sesame and ,lilies99 7#a71 99,stones of ,venice99 7#c73 ,george ,allen's ,cheap ,edition 7#e vols47 #j #e #j ,,herbert ,,spencer1 99,first ,principles99 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,,herbert ,,spencer1 99,education99 #j #a #j ,sir ,richard ,burton1 99,narrative of a ,pilgrimage to ,mecca399 ,bohn's ,edition 7#b vols47 #j #g #j ,j4 ,s4 ,speke1 99,sources of the ,nile399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,thomas ,henry ,huxley1 99,essays399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,e4 ,a4 ,freeman1 99,europe399 ,macmillan's ,primers #j #a #j ,,william ,,stubbs1 99,early ,plantagenets99 #j #b #j ,walter ,bagehot1 99,lombard ,street99 #j #c #f ,richard ,holt ,hutton1 99,cardinal ,newman99 #j #c #f ,sir ,john ,seeley1 99,ecce ,homo399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,david ,masson1 99,thomas de ,quincey399 ,english ,men of ,letters ,series #j #a #j ,john ,richard ,green1 99,short ,history of the ,english ,people99 #j #h #f ,sir ,leslie ,stephen1 99,pope399 ,english ,men of ,letters ,series #j #a #j ,lord ,acton1 99,on the ,study of ,history99 #j #b #f ,mandell ,creighton1 99,the ,age of ,elizabeth99 #j #b #f ,f4 ,w4 ,h4 ,myers1 99,wordsworth399 ,english ,men of ,letters ,series #j #a #j #d #aj #f ,the following authors are omitted1 ,i think justifiably3--,hallam1 ,whewell1 ,grote1 ,faraday1 ,herschell1 ,hamilton1 ,john ,wilson1 ,richard ,owen1 ,stirling ,maxwell1 ,buckle1 ,oscar ,wilde1 ,p4 ,g4 ,hamerton1 ,f4 ,d4 ,maurice1 ,henry ,sidgwick1 and ,richard ,jebb4 ,lastly1 here is the list of poets4 ,in the matter of price per volume it is the most expensive of all the lists4 ,this is due to the fact that it contains a larger proportion of copyright works4 ,where ,i do not specify the edition of a book1 the original copyright edition is meant3 ,,poets4 s4 d4 ,,william ,,wordsworth1 99,poetical ,works399 ,oxford ,edition #j #c #f ,,william ,,wordsworth1 99,literary ,criticism399 ,nowell ,smith's ,edition #j #b #f ,robert ,southey1 99,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,robert ,southey1 99,life of ,nelson399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,s4 ,t4 ,,coleridge1 99,poetical ,works399 ,newnes's ,thin-,paper ,classics #j #b #j ,s4 ,t4 ,,coleridge1 99,biographia ,literaria399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,s4 ,t4 ,,coleridge1 99,lectures on ,shakspere399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,,john ,,keats1 99,poetical ,works399 ,oxford ,edition #j #c #f ,,percy ,,bysshe ,,shelley1 99,poetical ,works399 ,oxford ,edition #j #c #f ,,lord ,,byron1 99,poems399 ,e4 ,hartley ,coleridge's ,edition #j #f #j ,,lord ,,byron1 99,letters399 ,scott ,library #j #a #j ,thomas ,hood1 99,poems399 ,world's ,classics #j #a #j ,james and ,horace ,smith1 99,rejected ,addresses399 ,new ,universal ,library #j #a #j ,john ,keble1 99,the ,christian ,year399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,george ,darley1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,t4 ,l4 ,beddoes1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,thomas ,moore1 99,selected ,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,james ,clarence ,mangan1 99,poems399 ,d4 ,j4 ,o',donoghue's ,edition #j #c #f ,w4 ,mackworth ,praed1 99,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,r4 ,s4 ,hawker1 99,cornish ,ballads399 ,c4 ,e4 ,byles's ,edition #j #e #j ,edward ,fitz,gerald1 99,omar ,khaayym399 ,golden ,treasury ,series #j #b #f ,p4 ,j4 ,bailey1 99,festus399 ,routledge's ,edition #j #c #f ,arthur ,hugh ,clough1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,,lord ,,tennyson1 99,poetical ,works399 ,globe ,edition #j #c #f ,,robert ,,browning1 99,poetical ,works399 ,world's ,classics 7#b vols47 #j #b #j ,elizabeth ,browning1 99,aurora ,leigh399 ,temple ,classics #j #a #f ,elizabeth ,browning1 99,shorter ,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,p4 ,b4 ,marston1 99,song-tide399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,aubrey de ,vere1 99,legends of ,st4 ,patrick399 ,cassell's ,national ,library #j #j #f ,,matthew ,,arnold1 99,poems399 ,golden ,treasury ,series #j #b #f ,,matthew ,,arnold1 99,essays399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,coventry ,patmore1 99,poems399 ,muses' ,library #j #a #j ,sydney ,dobell1 99,poems399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,eric ,mackay1 99,love-letters of a ,violinist399 ,canterbury ,poets #j #a #j ,t4 ,e4 ,brown1 99,poems99 #j #g #f ,c4 ,s4 ,calverley1 99,verses and ,translations99 #j #a #f ,d4 ,g4 ,,rossetti1 99,poetical ,works99 #j #c #f ,christina ,rossetti1 99,selected ,poems399 ,golden ,treasury ,series #j #b #f ,james ,thomson1 99,city of ,dreadful ,night99 #j #c #f ,jean ,ingelow1 99,poems399 ,red ,letter ,library #j #a #f ,william ,morris1 99,the ,earthly ,paradise99 #j #f #j ,william ,morris1 99,early ,romances399 ,everyman's ,library #j #a #j ,augusta ,webster1 99,selected ,poems99 #j #d #f ,w4 ,e4 ,henley1 99,poetical ,works99 #j #f #j ,francis ,thompson1 99,selected ,poems99 #j #e #j #e #g #j ,poets whom ,i have omitted after hesitation are3 ,ebenezer ,elliott1 ,thomas ,woolner1 ,william ,barnes1 ,gerald ,massey1 and ,charles ,jeremiah ,wells4 ,on the other hand1 ,i have had no hesitation about omitting ,david ,moir1 ,felicia ,hemans1 ,aytoun1 ,sir ,edwin ,arnold1 and ,sir ,lewis ,morris4 ,i have included ,john ,keble in deference to much enlightened opinion1 but against my inclination4 ,there are two names in the list which may be somewhat unfamiliar to many readers4 ,james ,clarence ,mangan is the author of 99,my ,dark ,rosaleen991 an acknowledged masterpiece1 which every library must contain4 ,t4 ,e4 ,brown is a great poet1 recognised as such by a few hundred people1 and assuredly destined to a far wider fame4 ,i have included ,fitz,gerald because 99,omar ,khayym99 is much less a translation than an original work4 ,,summary ,,of ,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century4 #hc prose-writers1 in #ada volumes1 costing #i #aj #g #ch poets #df #e #g #j #aba #ahg #ad #ag #g ,,grand ,,summary ,,of ,,complete ,,library4 ,authors4 ,volumes4 ,price4 #a4 ,to ,dryden #dh #gb #e #i #j #b4 ,eighteenth ,century #eg #gh #f #h #j #c4 ,nineteenth ,century #aba #ahg #ad #ag #g #bbf #ccg #bf #ad #g ,i think it will be agreed that the total cost of this library is surprisingly small4 ,by laying out the sum of sixpence a day for three years you may become the possessor of a collection of books which1 for range and completeness in all branches of literature1 will bear comparison with libraries far more imposing1 more numerous1 and more expensive4 ,i have mentioned the question of discount4 ,the discount which you will obtain 7even from a bookseller in a small town7 will be more than sufficient to pay for ,chambers's 99,cyclopdia of ,english ,literature991 three volumes1 price #cjs4 net4 ,this work is indispensable to a bookman4 ,personally1 ,i owe it much4 ,when you have read1 wholly or in part1 a majority of these three hundred and thirty-five volumes1 99with enjoyment991 you may begin to whisper to yourself that your literary taste is formed2 and you may pronounce judgment on modern works which come before the bar of your opinion in the calm assurance that1 though to err is human1 you do at any rate know what you are talking about4 ,chapter ,,xiv ,,mental ,,stocktaking ,great books do not spring from something accidental in the great men who wrote them4 ,they are the effluence of their very core1 the expression of the life itself of the authors4 ,and literature cannot be said to have served its true purpose until it has been translated into the actual life of him who reads4 ,it does not succeed until it becomes the vehicle of the vital4 ,progress is the gradual result of the unending battle between human reason and human instinct1 in which the former slowly but surely wins4 ,the most powerful engine in this battle is literature4 ,it is the vast reservoir of true ideas and high emotions--and life is constituted of ideas and emotions4 ,in a world deprived of literature1 the intellectual and emotional activity of all but a few exceptionally gifted men would quickly sink and retract to a narrow circle4 ,the broad1 the noble1 the generous would tend to disappear for want of accessible storage4 ,and life would be correspondingly degraded1 because the fallacious idea and the petty emotion would never feel the upward pull of the ideas and emotions of genius4 ,only by conceiving a society without literature can it be clearly realised that the function of literature is to raise the plain towards the top level of the peaks4 ,literature exists so that where one man has lived finely ten thousand may afterwards live finely4 ,it is a means of life2 it concerns the living essence4 ,of course1 literature has a minor function1 that of passing the time in an agreeable and harmless fashion1 by giving momentary faint pleasure4 ,vast multitudes of people 7among whom may be numbered not a few habitual readers7 utilise only this minor function of literature2 by implication they class it with golf1 bridge1 or soporifics4 ,literary genius1 however1 had no intention of competing with these devices for fleeting the empty hours2 and all such use of literature may be left out of account4 ,you1 ,o serious student of many volumes1 believe that you have a sincere passion for reading4 ,you hold literature in honour1 and your last wish would be to debase it to a paltry end4 ,you are not of those who read because the clock has just struck nine and one can't go to bed till eleven4 ,you are animated by a real desire to get out of literature all that literature will give4 ,and in that aim you keep on reading1 year after year1 and the grey hairs come4 ,but amid all this steady tapping of the reservoir1 do you ever take stock of what you have acquired8 ,do you ever pause to make a valuation1 in terms of your own life1 of that which you are daily absorbing1 or imagine you are absorbing8 ,do you ever satisfy yourself by proof that you are absorbing anything at all1 that the living waters1 instead of vitalising you1 are not running off you as though you were a duck in a storm8 ,because1 if you omit this mere business precaution1 it may well be that you1 too1 without knowing it1 are little by little joining the triflers who read only because eternity is so long4 ,it may well be that even your alleged sacred passion is1 after all1 simply a sort of drug-habit4 ,the suggestion disturbs and worries you4 ,you dismiss it impatiently2 but it returns4 ,how 7you ask1 unwillingly7 can a man perform a mental stocktaking8 ,how can he put a value on what he gets from books8 ,how can he effectively test1 in cold blood1 whether he is receiving from literature all that literature has to give him8 ,the test is not so vague1 nor so difficult1 as might appear4 ,if a man is not thrilled by intimate contact with nature3 with the sun1 with the earth1 which is his origin and the arouser of his acutest emotions-- ,if he is not troubled by the sight of beauty in many forms-- ,if he is devoid of curiosity concerning his fellow-men and his fellow-animals-- ,if he does not have glimpses of the unity of all things in an orderly progress-- ,if he is chronically querulous1 dejected1 and envious-- ,if he is pessimistic-- ,if he is of those who talk about this age of shams1 this age without ideals1 this hysterical age1 and this heaven-knows-what-age-- ,then that man1 though he reads undisputed classics for twenty hours a day1 though he has a memory of steel1 though he rivals ,porson in scholarship and ,sainte-,beuve in judgment1 is not receiving from literature what literature has to give4 ,indeed1 he is chiefly wasting his time4 ,unless he can read differently1 it were better for him if he sold all his books1 gave to the poor1 and played croquet4 ,he fails because he has not assimilated into his existence the vital essences which genius put into the books that have merely passed before his eyes2 because genius has offered him faith1 courage1 vision1 noble passion1 curiosity1 love1 a thirst for beauty1 and he has not taken the gift2 because genius has offered him the chance of living fully1 and he is only half alive1 for it is only in the stress of fine ideas and emotions that a man may be truly said to live4 ,this is not a moral invention1 but a simple fact1 which will be attested by all who know what that stress is4 ,what6 ,you talk learnedly about ,shakespeare's sonnets6 ,have you heard ,shakespeare's terrific shout3 ,full many a glorious morning have ,i seen ,flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye1 ,kissing with golden face the meadows green1 ,gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy4 ,and yet1 can you see the sun over the viaduct at ,loughborough ,junction of a morning1 and catch its rays in the ,thames off ,dewar's whisky monument1 and not shake with the joy of life8 ,if so1 you and ,shakespeare are not yet in communication4 ,what6 ,you pride yourself on your beautiful edition of ,casaubon's translation of 99,marcus ,aurelius991 and you savour the cadences of the famous3 ,this day ,i shall have to do with an idle1 curious man1 with an unthankful man1 a railer1 a crafty1 false1 or an envious man4 ,all these ill qualities have happened unto him1 through ignorance of that which is truly good and truly bad4 ,but ,i that understand the nature of that which is good1 that it only is to be desired1 and of that which is bad1 that it only is truly odious and shameful3 who know1 moreover1 that this transgressor1 whosoever he be1 is my kinsman1 not by the same blood and seed1 but by participation of the same reason and of the same divine particle-- how can ,i be hurt8444 ,and with these cadences in your ears you go and quarrel with a cabman6 ,you would be ashamed of your literary self to be caught in ignorance of ,whitman1 who wrote3 ,now understand me well--it is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success1 no matter what1 shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary4 ,and yet1 having achieved a motor-car1 you lose your temper when it breaks down half-way up a hill6 ,you know your ,wordsworth1 who has been trying to teach you about3 ,the ,upholder of the tranquil soul ,that tolerates the indignities of ,time ,and1 from the centre of ,eternity ,all finite motions over-ruling1 lives ,in glory immutable4 ,but you are capable of being seriously unhappy when your suburban train selects a tunnel for its repose6 ,and the ,a4 ,v4 of the ,bible1 which you now read1 not as your forefathers read it1 but with an sthetic delight1 especially in the ,apocrypha6 ,you remember3 ,whatsoever is brought upon thee1 take cheerfully1 and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate4 ,for gold is tried in the fire and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity4 ,and yet you are ready to lie down and die because a woman has scorned you6 ,go to6 ,you think some of my instances approach the ludicrous8 ,they do4 ,they are meant to do so4 ,but they are no more ludicrous than life itself4 ,and they illustrate in the most workaday fashion how you can test whether your literature fulfils its function of informing and transforming your existence4 ,i say that if daily events and scenes do not constantly recall and utilise the ideas and emotions contained in the books which you have read or are reading2 if the memory of these books does not quicken the perception of beauty1 wherever you happen to be1 does not help you to correlate the particular trifle with the universal1 does not smooth out irritation and give dignity to sorrow--then you are1 consciously or not1 unworthy of your high vocation as a bookman4 ,you may say that ,i am preaching a sermon4 ,the fact is1 ,i am4 ,my mood is a severely moral mood4 ,for when ,i reflect upon the difference between what books have to offer and what even relatively earnest readers take the trouble to accept from them1 ,i am appalled 7or should be appalled1 did ,i not know that the world is moving7 by the sheer inefficiency1 the bland1 complacent failure of the earnest reader4 ,i am like yourself1 the spectacle of inefficiency rouses my holy ire4 ,before you begin upon another masterpiece1 set out in a row the masterpieces which you are proud of having read during the past year4 ,take the first on the list1 that book which you perused in all the zeal of your ,new ,year resolutions for systematic study4 ,examine the compartments of your mind4 ,search for the ideas and emotions which you have garnered from that book4 ,think1 and recollect when last something from that book recurred to your memory apropos of your own daily commerce with humanity4 ,is it history--when did it throw a light for you on modern politics8 ,is it science--when did it show you order in apparent disorder1 and help you to put two and two together into an inseparable four8 ,is it ethics-- when did it influence your conduct in a twopenny-halfpenny affair between man and man8 ,is it a novel--when did it help you to understand all and forgive all8 ,is it poetry--when was it a magnifying glass to disclose beauty to you1 or a fire to warm your cooling faith8 ,if you can answer these questions satisfactorily1 your stocktaking as regards the fruit of your traffic with that book may be reckoned satisfactory4 ,if you cannot answer them satisfactorily1 then either you chose the book badly or your impression that you 99read99 it is a mistaken one4 ,when the result of this stocktaking forces you to the conclusion that your riches are not so vast as you thought them to be1 it is necessary to look about for the causes of the misfortune4 ,the causes may be several4 ,you may have been reading worthless books4 ,this1 however1 ,i should say at once1 is extremely unlikely4 ,habitual and confirmed readers1 unless they happen to be reviewers1 seldom read worthless books4 ,in the first place1 they are so busy with books of proved value that they have only a small margin of leisure left for very modern works1 and generally1 before they can catch up with the age1 ,time or the critic has definitely threshed for them the wheat from the chaff4 ,no6 ,mediocrity has not much chance of hoodwinking the serious student4 ,it is less improbable that the serious student has been choosing his books badly4 ,he may do this in two ways--absolutely and relatively4 ,every reader of long standing has been through the singular experience of suddenly 99seeing99 a book with which his eyes have been familiar for years4 ,he reads a book with a reputation and thinks3 ,yes1 this is a good book4 ,this book gives me pleasure4 ,and then after an interval1 perhaps after half a lifetime1 something mysterious happens to his mental sight4 ,he picks up the book again1 and sees a new and profound significance in every sentence1 and he says3 ,i was perfectly blind to this book before4 ,yet he is no cleverer than he used to be4 ,only something has happened to him4 ,let a gold watch be discovered by a supposititious man who has never heard of watches4 ,he has a sense of beauty4 ,he admires the watch1 and takes pleasure in it4 ,he says3 ,this is a beautiful piece of bric--brac2 ,i fully appreciate this delightful trinket4 ,then imagine his feelings when someone comes along with the key2 imagine the light flooding his brain4 ,similar incidents occur in the eventful life of the constant reader4 ,he has no key1 and never suspects that there exists such a thing as a key4 ,that is what ,i call a choice absolutely bad4 ,the choice is relatively bad when1 spreading over a number of books1 it pursues no order1 and thus results in a muddle of faint impressions each blurring the rest4 ,books must be allowed to help one another2 they must be skilfully called in to each other's aid4 ,and that this may be accomplished some guiding principle is necessary4 ,and what1 you demand1 should that guiding principle be8 ,how do ,i know8 ,nobody1 fortunately1 can make your principles for you4 ,you have to make them for yourself4 ,but ,i will venture upon this general observation3 that in the mental world what counts is not numbers but co-ordination4 ,as regards facts and ideas1 the great mistake made by the average well-intentioned reader is that he is content with the names of things instead of occupying himself with the causes of things4 ,he seeks answers to the question ,what8 instead of to the question ,why8 ,he studies history1 and never guesses that all history is caused by the facts of geography4 ,he is a botanical expert1 and can take you to where the 99,sibthorpia europa99 grows1 and never troubles to wonder what the earth would be without its cloak of plants4 ,he wanders forth of starlit evenings and will name you with unction all the constellations from ,andromeda to the ,scorpion2 but if you ask him why ,venus can never be seen at midnight1 he will tell you that he has not bothered with the scientific details4 ,he has not learned that names are nothing1 and the satisfaction of the lust of the eye a trifle compared to the imaginative vision of which scientific details are the indispensable basis4 ,most reading1 ,i am convinced1 is unphilosophical2 that is to say1 it lacks the element which more than anything else quickens the poetry of life4 ,unless and until a man has formed a scheme of knowledge1 be it a mere skeleton1 his reading must necessarily be unphilosophical4 ,he must have attained to some notion of the inter-relations of the various branches of knowledge before he can properly comprehend the branch in which he specialises4 ,if he has not drawn an outline map upon which he can fill in whatever knowledge comes to him1 as it comes1 and on which he can trace the affinity of every part with every other part1 he is assuredly frittering away a large percentage of his efforts4 ,there are certain philosophical works which1 once they are mastered1 seem to have performed an operation for cataract1 so that he who was blind1 having read them1 henceforward sees cause and effect working in and out everywhere4 ,to use another figure1 they leave stamped on the brain a chart of the entire province of knowledge4 ,such a work is ,spencer's 99,first ,principles994 ,i know that it is nearly useless to advise people to read 99,first ,principles994 ,they are intimidated by the sound of it2 and it costs as much as a dress-circle seat at the theatre4 ,but if they would1 what brilliant stocktakings there might be in a few years6 ,why1 if they would only read such detached essays as that on ,manners and ,fashion1 or ,the ,genesis of ,science 7in a sixpenny volume of ,spencer's 99,essays991 published by ,watts and ,co471 the magic illumination1 the necessary power of synthetising things1 might be vouchsafed to them4 ,in any case1 the lack of some such disciplinary1 co-ordinating measure will amply explain many disastrous stocktakings4 ,the manner in which one single ray of light1 one single precious hint1 will clarify and energise the whole mental life of him who receives it1 is among the most wonderful and heavenly of intellectual phenomena4 ,some men search for that light and never find it4 ,but most men never search for it4 ,the superlative cause of disastrous stocktakings remains1 and it is much more simple than the one with which ,i have just dealt4 ,it consists in the absence of meditation4 ,people read1 and read1 and read1 blandly unconscious of their effrontery in assuming that they can assimilate without any further effort the vital essence which the author has breathed into them4 ,they cannot4 ,and the proof that they do not is shown all the time in their lives4 ,i say that if a man does not spend at least as much time in actively and definitely thinking about what he has read as he has spent in reading1 he is simply insulting his author4 ,if he does not submit himself to intellectual and emotional fatigue in classifying the communicated ideas1 and in emphasising on his spirit the imprint of the communicated emotions--then reading with him is a pleasant pastime and nothing else4 ,this is a distressing fact4 ,but it is a fact4 ,it is distressing1 for the reason that meditation is not a popular exercise4 ,if a friend asks you what you did last night1 you may answer1 ,i was reading1 and he will be impressed and you will be proud4 ,but if you answer1 ,i was meditating1 he will have a tendency to smile and you will have a tendency to blush4 ,i know this4 ,i feel it myself4 7,i cannot offer any explanation47 ,but it does not shake my conviction that the absence of meditation is the main origin of disappointing stocktakings4