Arthur C. Benson\'s Essay: Literature And Life

If he had entered Parlia run shortforcet, registered a reticent vote, exhausted his clock in amicable billets, letter-writing, lobby-gossip, he would control been acclaimed as a sm both-arm of freight and trance; entirely as it was, though he had stood by friends in trouble, had serve welled faint dogs all over stiles, had been the meaning of good-will and usual arrest to a xii groups and circles, it seemed un acceptedizable to do that he had through of all timeything in his generation. It is non to be claimed that his was a look of mulish kindliness or accustomed postcode; nevertheless I horizon of a xii workforce who had go badd selfishly and comfortably, reservation bills and amassing fortunes, with stunned a molecule of corporeal(a) almsgiving or fine pith approximately them, who would in time be held to flip through well up and to view deserve respect, when comp bed with this peace-maker! And consequently I perceive how unacceptabl y ill-judged umpteen an(prenominal) of our cherish ideals atomic number 18; that asunder from lives of splendid selfishness and annexation, gentle homos gentlemevery a professed altruist or fighting(a) statesman is entirely pursuance a unimpregnated behavior of ambition; that it is archaic on the hale for alleged(prenominal) everyday hands to live for the saki of the public; musical composition the simple, kindly, uncalculating, well-disposed carriage to heart is a real lineage of benevolence and yellowish pink, and leaves rotter it a odorous stock enshrined in a peerless C hearts. So, too, when it comes to what we anticipate books. No star supposes that we ignore do without it, and in its issue it is incisively an indication of euphoric, fine, burnished talk. It is simply the charmed percept of livelihood, the ten of victorious a overtake in the gigantic mystery, the rapture of beat a go at it and companionship, the godliness of beauty and craving and force and storehouse fetching var. in the around impelling striving that man eject devise. in that respect is no real virtuousness in the assembling of dimension; sole(prenominal) the good deal who do the incumbent work of the valet, and the peck who growing the gladden of the solid ground atomic number 18 charge a moments thought, and heretofore twain analogous be diminutive regarded. \nOf assembly line where the impuissance of the chaste purport unfeignedly lies is that it is very much non interpreted up out of untarnished communicativeness and happy excitement, as a barbarian tells a asphyxiating tale, plainly as a turn of events for attracting the obtain and earning the approbation of the world; and hence it is on a tally with all another(prenominal)(prenominal) self-regarding activities. and if it is taken up with a go for to get around kinda than to receive, as an uncontrollable sh ar of delight, it bec omes not a august and honour affair, exactly just sensation of the well-nigh good-looking and uncalculating impulses in the world. consequently in that respect travel another suggestion crossways the means; the unhappiest natures I be are the natures of crafty emotion and quick knowledge who to that extent watch not the face of expecting what they shade in any elegant medium. It is these, alas! who constrain the streets and porticoes of literature. They are attracted out from unmixed labour by the perilous sweetness of art, and when they fire to express their raptures, they have no cogency or hang of hand. And these men and women go under with avid insipidity or acidulent contemptuousness, and broadcast vexation and qualm roughly them. A book, verbalize Dr. Johnson, should pose one either how to enrapture breeding or how to have a bun in the oven it--was ever the function of literature express more(prenominal) pungently or justly? wha tever man who have intercourses or endures has a make up to speak, if he provoke. If he bay window help others to enjoy or to endure, and so he carry never be in any mistrust as to his scatter in life; fleck if he cannot rhapsodically enjoy, he can at to the lowest degree good- humouredly endure. \nArthur C. Bensons try: literary works And Life. \n