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diff --git a/64933-0.txt b/64933-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83f4da6 --- /dev/null +++ b/64933-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3412 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Arnold Bennett Calendar, by Enoch Arnold +Bennett + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will +have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using +this eBook. + +Title: The Arnold Bennett Calendar + +Author: Enoch Arnold Bennett + +Compiler: Frank C. Bennett + +Release Date: Mar 27, 2021 [eBook #64933] + +Language: English + +Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed + Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was + produced from images generously made available by The + Internet Archive) + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARNOLD BENNETT CALENDAR *** + + + + + +_The Arnold Bennett Calendar_ + + + + +BY ARNOLD BENNETT + + +NOVELS + + THE OLD WIVES’ TALE + HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND + THE MATADOR OF THE FIVE TOWNS + THE BOOK OF CARLOTTA + BURIED ALIVE + A GREAT MAN + LEONORA + WHOM GOD HATH JOINED + A MAN FROM THE NORTH + ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS + THE GLIMPSE + +POCKET PHILOSOPHIES + + HOW TO LIVE ON 24 HOURS A DAY + THE HUMAN MACHINE + LITERARY TASTE + MENTAL EFFICIENCY + +PLAYS + + CUPID AND COMMONSENSE + WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS + POLITE FARCES + MILESTONES + THE HONEYMOON + +MISCELLANEOUS + + THE TRUTH ABOUT AN AUTHOR + THE FEAST OF ST. FRIEND + + + GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + NEW YORK + + + + + _The + Arnold Bennett + Calendar_ + + _Compiled By + Frank Bennett_ + + [Illustration] + + _New York_ + _George H· Doran Company_ + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1912 + BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + + THE·PLIMPTON·PRESS + [W·D·O] + NORWOOD·MASS·U·S·A + + +_Enoch Arnold Bennett was born at Hanley-in-the-Potteries (one of the +“Five Towns” frequently appearing in his writings) on 27th May 1867. +He was educated at the endowed Middle School, Newcastle-under-Lyme, +and matriculated in the London University. From school he went into +the office of his father, who practised as a solicitor at Hanley, +and stayed with him until 1889, when he took a post in a solicitor’s +office in London, which he held until 1893. In that year he abandoned +the law finally to become assistant editor of_ Woman, _and succeeded +to the editorship in 1896. This post he resigned in 1900 to devote +himself exclusively to literature. In the meantime several of his +works had been issued, the first being “A Man from the North” +(1898) and a handbook, “Journalism for Women,” followed in the next +year by the publication of a volume of plays, “Polite Farces,” his +first experiments in drama. Afterwards appeared in rapid succession +nine other novels, two volumes of short stories, seven volumes of +belles-lettres, and seven fantasias. Besides these he wrote two plays, +“Cupid and Common-Sense,” produced by the Stage Society in 1908, and +“What the Public Wants,” also produced by the Stage Society in 1909, +and afterwards by Mr. Hawtrey at the New Royalty Theatre. Both these +plays were subsequently staged in Glasgow, and by Miss Horniman’s +Company. The most important of his publications include:--among +novels, “Leonora,” “A Great Man,” “Sacred and Profane Love,” “Whom +God Hath Joined----,” “The Old Wives’ Tale,” and “Clayhanger”; among +the belles-lettres, “The Truth about an Author,” “Literary Taste,” +“The Reasonable Life,” “The Human Machine,” and “How to Live on +Twenty-Four Hours a Day” (the last four contributed originally to_ T. +P.’s Weekly, _and containing indications of Mr. Bennett’s theories of +life); and in the short stories, “Tales of the Five Towns,” and “The +Grim Smile of the Five Towns.” Mr. Bennett has very definite leanings +towards Socialism, and, under a pseudonym, writes regularly for_ The +New Age. _He also contributes from time to time to the most important +progressive weekly and monthly magazines._ + + _F. C. B._ + + + + +_The Arnold Bennett Calendar_ + + + + +_January_ + + +_One_ + + The individual who scoffs at New Year’s resolutions resembles the + woman who says she doesn’t look under the bed at nights; the truth is + not in him. + + +_Two_ + + To give pleasure is the highest end of any work of art, because the + pleasure procured from any art is tonic, and transforms the life into + which it enters. + + +_Three_ + + There are only two fundamental differences in the world--the + difference between sex and sex, and the difference between youth and + age. + + +_Four_ + + The only class of modern play in which it is possible to be both + quite artistic and quite marketable, is the farce. + + +_Five_ + + To enjoy a work of imagination is no pastime, rather a sweet but + fatiguing labour. After a play of Shakespeare or a Wagnerian opera + repose is needed. Only a madman like Louis of Bavaria could demand + _Tristan_ twice in one night. + + +_Six_ + + Great books do not spring from something accidental in the great + men who wrote them. They are the effluence of their very core, the + expression of the life itself of the authors. + + +_Seven_ + + It is within the experience of everyone that when pleasure and pain + reach a certain intensity they are indistinguishable. + + +_Eight_ + + One of the main obstacles to the cultivation of poetry in the average + sensible man is an absurdly inflated notion of the ridiculous. + + +_Nine_ + + The crudest excitement of the imaginative faculty is to be preferred + to a swinish preoccupation with the gross physical existence. + + +_Ten_ + + The brain is the diplomatist which arranges relations between our + instinctive self and the universe, and it fulfils its mission when it + provides for the maximum of freedom to the instincts with the minimum + of friction. + + +_Eleven_ + + A woman who has beauty wants to frame it in beauty. The eye is a + sensualist, and its appetites, once aroused, grow. A beautiful woman + takes the same pleasure in the sight of another beautiful woman as + a man does; only jealousy or fear prevents her from admitting the + pleasure. + + +_Twelve_ + + The beginning of wise living lies in the control of the brain by the + will. + + +_Thirteen_ + + To utter a jeremiad upon the decadence of taste, to declare that + literature is going to the dogs because a fourth-rate novel has been + called a masterpiece and has made someone’s fortune, would be absurd. + I have a strong faith that taste is as good as ever it was, and that + literature will continue on its way undisturbed. + + +_Fourteen_ + + There is a loveliness of so imperious, absolute, dazzling a kind + that it banishes from the hearts of men all moral conceptions, all + considerations of right and wrong, and leaves therein nothing but + worship and desire. + + +_Fifteen_ + + When homage is reiterated, when the pleasure of obeying a command and + satisfying a caprice is begged for, when roses are strewn, and even + necks put down in the path, one forgets to be humble; one forgets + that in meekness alone lies the sole good; one confuses deserts with + the hazards of heredity. + + +_Sixteen_ + + There are men who are capable of loving a machine more deeply than + they can love a woman. They are among the happiest men on earth. + + +_Seventeen_ + + The uncultivated reader is content to live wholly in and for the + moment, sentence by sentence. Keep him amused and he will ask no + more. You may delude him, you may withhold from him every single + thing to which he is rightfully entitled, but he will not care. The + more crude you are, the better will he be pleased. + + +_Eighteen_ + + It is only in the stress of fine ideas and emotions that a man may be + truly said to live. + + +_Nineteen_ + + Oh, innocence! Oh, divine ignorance! Oh, refusal! None knows your + value save her who has bartered you! And herein is the woman’s + tragedy. + + +_Twenty_ + + To extract from the brain, at will and by will, concentration on + a given idea for even so short a period as half an hour is an + exceedingly difficult feat--and a fatiguing! It needs perseverance. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + A merely literary crudity will affect the large public neither one + way nor the other, since the large public is entirely uninterested in + questions of style; but all other crudities appeal strongly to that + public. + + +_Twenty-two_ + +_“Cupid and Commonsense” produced._ + + Everyone who has driven a motor-car knows the uncanny sensation that + ensues when for the first time in your life you engage the clutch, + and the Thing beneath you begins mysteriously and formidably to move. + It is at once an astonishment, a terror, and a delight. I felt like + that as I watched the progress of my first play. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + Can you see the sun over the viaduct at Loughborough Junction of + a morning, and catch its rays in the Thames off Dewar’s whisky + monument, and not shake with the joy of life? If so, you and + Shakespeare are not yet in communication. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + Adults have never yet invented any institution, festival or diversion + specially for the benefit of children. The egoism of adults makes + such an effort impossible, and the ingenuity and pliancy of + children make it unnecessary. The pantomime, for example, which is + now pre-eminently a diversion for children, was created by adults + for the amusement of adults. Children have merely accepted it and + appropriated it. Children, being helpless, are of course fatalists + and imitators. They take what comes, and they do the best they can + with it. And when they have made something their own that was adult, + they stick to it like leeches. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + The living speak of the uncanniness of the dead. It does not occur + to them that manifestations of human existence may be uncanny to the + dead. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + There is no royal road to the control of the brain. There is no + patent dodge about it, and no complicated function which a plain + person may not comprehend. It is simply a question of: “I will, _I_ + will, and I _will_.” + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + I knew that when love lasted, the credit of the survival was due + far more often to the woman than to the man. The woman must husband + herself, dole herself out, economise herself so that she might be + splendidly wasteful when need was. The woman must plan, scheme, + devise, invent, reconnoitre, take precautions; and do all this + sincerely and lovingly in the name and honour of love. A passion for + her is a campaign; and her deadliest enemy is satiety. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + Efficient living, living up to one’s best standard, getting the last + ounce of power out of the machine with the minimum of friction: these + things depend on the disciplined and vigorous condition of the brain. + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + In the world of books, as in every other world, one-half does not + know how the other half lives. In literary matters the literate + seldom suspect the extreme simplicity and _naïveté_ of the + illiterate. They wilfully blind themselves to it; they are afraid to + face it. + + +_Thirty_ + + The mysteriousness of woman vanishes the instant you brutally face + it. Boys and ageing celibates are obsessed by the mysteriousness of + woman. The obsession is a sign either of immaturity or of morbidity. + The mysteriousness of woman,--take her, and see then if she is + mysterious! + + +_Thirty-one_ + + Train journeys have too often been sorrowful for me, so much so that + the conception itself of a train, crawling over the country like + a snake, or flying across it like a winged monster, fills me with + melancholy. Trains loaded with human parcels of sadness and illusion + and brief joy, wandering about, crossing, and occasionally colliding + in the murk of existence; trains warmed and lighted in winter; trains + open to catch the air of your own passage in summer; night-trains + that pierce the night with your yellow, glaring eyes, and waken + mysterious villages, and leave the night behind and run into the dawn + as into a station; trains that carry bread and meats for the human + parcels, and pillows and fountains of fresh water; trains that sweep + haughtily and wearily indifferent through the landscapes and the + towns, sufficient unto yourselves, hasty, panting, formidable, and + yet mournful entities: I have understood you in your arrogance and + your pathos! + + + + +_February_ + + +_One_ + + The ecstasy of longing is better than the assuaging of desire. + + +_Two_ + + As regards facts and ideas, 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 things. + + +_Three_ + + Time and increasing knowledge of the true facts have dissipated for + me the melancholy and affecting legend of literary talent going + a-begging because of the indifference of publishers. O young author + of talent, would that I could find you and make you understand how + the publisher yearns for you as the lover for his love. + + +_Four_ + + The brain can be disciplined by learning the habit of obedience. And + it can learn the habit of obedience by the practice of concentration. + + +_Five_ + + You can attach any ideas you please to music, but music, if you will + forgive me saying so, rejects them all equally. Art has to do with + emotions not with ideas, and the great defect of literature is that + it can only express emotions by means of ideas. What makes music the + greatest of all the arts is that it can express emotions without + ideas. Literature can appeal to the soul only through the mind. + Music goes direct. Its language is a language which the soul alone + understands, but which the soul can never translate. + + +_Six_ + + If a man does not spend at least as much time in actively and + definitely thinking about what he has read as he spent in reading, he + is simply insulting his author. + + +_Seven_ + + He was of that small and lonely minority of men who never know + ambition, ardour, zeal, yearning, tears; whose convenient desires are + capable of immediate satisfaction; of whom it may be said that they + purchase a second-rate happiness cheap at the price of an incapacity + for deep feeling. + + +_Eight_ + + No man, except a greater author, can teach an author his business. + + +_Nine_ + + Size is the quality which most strongly and surely appeals to the + imagination of the multitude. Of all modern monuments the Eiffel + Tower and the Big Wheel have aroused the most genuine curiosity and + admiration: they are the biggest. As with this monstrous architecture + of metals, so with the fabric of ideas and emotions: the attention + of the whole crowd can only be caught by an audacious hugeness, an + eye-smiting enormity of dimensions so gross as to be nearly physical. + + +_Ten_ + + Genius apart, woman is usually more touchingly lyrical than man in + the yearning for the ideal. + + +_Eleven_ + + I had fast in my heart’s keeping the new truth that in the body, and + the instincts of the body, there should be no shame but rather a + frank, joyous pride. + + +_Twelve_ + + A person is idle because his thoughts dwell habitually on the instant + pleasures of idleness. + + +_Thirteen_ + + By love I mean a noble and sensuous passion, absorbing the energies + of the soul, fulfilling destiny, and reducing all that has gone + before it to the level of a mere prelude. + + +_Fourteen_ + + For myself, I have never valued work for its own sake, and I never + shall. + + +_Fifteen_ + + Having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all + costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having + accomplished a tiresome labour is immense. + + +_Sixteen_ + + All who look into their experience will admit that the failure + to replace old habits by new ones is due to the fact that at the + critical moment the brain does not remember; it simply forgets. + + +_Seventeen_ + + Many writers, and many clever writers, use the art of literature + merely to gain an end which is connected with some different art, or + with no art. Such a writer, finding himself burdened with a message + prophetic, didactic, or reforming, discovers suddenly that he has + the imaginative gift, and makes his imagination the servant of his + intellect, or of emotions which are not artistic emotions. + + +_Eighteen_ + + I only value mental work for the more full and more intense + consciousness of being alive which it gives me. + + +_Nineteen_ + + Whatever the vagaries of human nature, the true philosopher is never + surprised by them. And one vagary is not more strange than another. + + +_Twenty_ + + You can control nothing but your own mind. Even your two-year-old + babe may defy you by the instinctive force of its personality. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + To take the common grey things which people know and despise, and, + without tampering, to disclose their epic significance, their + essential grandeur--that is realism as distinguished from idealism or + romanticism. It may scarcely be, it probably is not, the greatest art + of all; but it is art precious and indisputable. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + There are few mental exercises better than learning great poetry or + prose by heart. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + The British public will never be convinced by argument. But two drops + of perspiration on the cheeks of a nice-looking girl with a torn + skirt and a crushed hat will make it tremble for the safety of its + ideals, and twenty drops will persuade it to sign anything for the + restoration of decency. You surely don’t suppose that _argument_ will + be of any use! + + +_Twenty-four_ + + Some people have a gift of conjuring with conversations. They are + almost always frankly and openly interested in themselves. You may + seek to foil them; you may even violently wrench the conversation + into other directions. But every effort will be useless. They will + beat you. You had much better lean back in your chair and enjoy their + legerdemain. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + The voice of this spirit says that it has lost every illusion about + life, and that life seems only the more beautiful. It says that + activity is but another form of contemplation, pain but another form + of pleasure, power but another form of weakness, hate but another + form of love, and that it is well these things should be so. It says + there is no end, only a means; and that the highest joy is to suffer, + and the supreme wisdom is to exist. If you will but live, it cries, + that grave but yet passionate voice--if you will but live! Were + there a heaven, and you reached it, you could do no more than live. + The true heaven is here where you live, where you strive and lose, + and weep and laugh. And the true hell is here, where you forget to + live, and blind your eyes to the omnipresent and terrible beauty of + existence. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + The most important preliminary to self-development is the faculty of + concentrating at will. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + Diaries, save in experienced hands, are apt to get themselves + done with the very minimum of mental effort. They also tend to an + exaggeration of egotism, and if they are left lying about they tend + to strife. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + The English world of home is one of the most perfectly organized + microcosms on this planet, not excepting the Indian _purdah_. The + product of centuries of culture, it is regarded, not too absurdly, + as the fairest flower of Christian civilisation. It exists chiefly, + of course, for women, but it could never have been what it is had + not men bound themselves to respect the code which they made for it. + It is the fountain of refinement and of consolation, the nursery of + affection. It has the peculiar faculty of nourishing itself, for it + implicitly denies the existence of anything beyond its doorstep, save + the constitution, a bishop, a rector, the seaside, Switzerland, and + the respectful poor. + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + I have always been a bookman. From adolescence books have been one of + my passions. Books not merely--and perhaps not chiefly--as vehicles + of learning or knowledge, but books as books, books as entities, + books as beautiful things, books as historical antiquities, books + as repositories of memorable associations. Questions of type, ink, + paper, margins, watermarks, paginations, bindings, are capable of + really agitating me. + + + + +_March_ + + +_One_ + + It is characteristic of the literary artist with a genuine vocation + that his large desire is, not to express in words any particular + thing, but to express _himself_, the sum of his sensations. He feels + the vague, disturbing impulse to write long before he has chosen + his first subject from the thousands of subjects which present + themselves, and which in the future he is destined to attack. + + +_Two_ + + In the mental world what counts is not numbers but co-ordination. + + +_Three_ + + In England, nearly all the most interesting people are social + reformers: and the only circles of society in which you are not + bored, in which there is real conversation, are the circles of social + reform. + + +_Four_ + + Anthology construction is one of the pleasantest hobbies that a + person who is not mad about golf and bridge--that is to say, a + thinking person--can possibly have. + + +_Five_ + + That part of my life which I conduct by myself, without reference--or + at any rate without direct reference--to others, I can usually manage + in such a way that the gods do not positively weep at the spectacle + thereof. + + +_Six_ + + It’s quite impossible to believe that a man is a genius, if you’ve + been to school with him, or even known his father. + + +_Seven_ + + It is the privilege of only the greatest painters not to put letters + on the corners of their pictures in order to keep other painters from + taking the credit for them afterwards. + + +_Eight_ + + Your own mind has the power to transmute every external phenomenon to + its own purposes. + + +_Nine_ + + Anything would be a success in London on Sunday night. People are so + grateful. + + +_Ten_ + + The one cheerful item in a universe of stony facts is that no one can + harm anybody except himself. + + +_Eleven_ + + The eye that has learned to look life full in the face without a + quiver of the lid should find nothing repulsive. Everything that is, + is the ordered and calculable result of environment. Nothing can be + abhorrent, nothing blameworthy, nothing contrary to nature. Can we + exceed nature? In the presence of the primeval and ever-continuing + forces of nature, can we maintain our fantastic conceptions of sin + and of justice? We are, and that is all we should dare to say. + + +_Twelve_ + + The art of life, the art of extracting all its power from the human + machine, does not lie chiefly in processes of bookish-culture, nor + in contemplations of the beauty and majesty of existence. It lies + chiefly in keeping the peace, the whole peace, and nothing but the + peace, with those with whom one is “thrown.” + + +_Thirteen_ + + We have our ideals now, but when they are mentioned we feel + self-conscious and uncomfortable, like a school-boy caught praying. + + +_Fourteen_ + + After the crest of the wave the trough--it must be so; but how + profound the instinct which complains! + + +_Fifteen_ + + The performance of some pianists is so wonderful that it seems as if + they were crossing Niagara on a tight-rope, and you tremble lest they + should fall off. + + +_Sixteen_ + + The secret of calm cheerfulness is kindliness; no person can be + consistently cheerful and calm who does not consistently think kind + thoughts. + + +_Seventeen_ + + It is indubitable that a large amount of what is known as + self-improvement is simply self-indulgence--a form of pleasure which + only incidentally improves a particular part of the human machine, + and even that part to the neglect of far more important parts. + + +_Eighteen_ + + The average man has this in common with the most exceptional genius, + that his career in its main contours is governed by his instincts. + + +_Nineteen_ + + The most beautiful things, and the most vital things, and the most + lasting things are often mysterious and inexplicable and sudden. + + +_Twenty_ + + An accurate knowledge of _any_ subject, coupled with a carefully + nurtured sense of the relativity of that subject to other subjects, + implies an enormous self-development. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + The great artist may force you to laugh, or to wipe away a tear, but + he accomplishes these minor feats by the way. What he mainly does is + to _see_ for you. If, in presenting a scene, he does not disclose + aspects of it which you would not have observed for yourself, then he + falls short of success. In a physical and psychical sense power is + visual, the power of an eye seeing things always afresh, virginally + as though on the very morn of creation. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + It is well, when one is judging a friend, to remember that he is + judging you with the same god-like and superior impartiality. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + He who speaks, speaks twice. His words convey his thoughts, and his + tone conveys his mental attitude towards the person spoken to. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + The man who loses his temper often thinks he is doing something + rather fine and majestic. On the contrary, so far is this from being + the fact, he is merely making an ass of himself. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + The female sex is prone to be inaccurate and careless of apparently + trivial detail, because this is the general tendency of mankind. + In men destined for a business or a profession, the proclivity is + harshly discouraged at an early stage. In women, who usually are not + destined for anything whatever, it enjoys a merry life, and often + refuses to be improved out of existence when the sudden need arises. + No one by taking thought can deracinate the mental habits of, say, + twenty years. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + Kindliness of heart is not the greatest of human qualities--and + its general effect on the progress of the world is not entirely + beneficent--but it is the greatest of human qualities in friendship. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + There is a certain satisfaction in hopelessness amid the extreme + of misery. You press it to you as the martyr clutched the burning + fagot. You enjoy it. You savour, piquantly, your woe, your shame, + your abjectness, the failure of your philosophy. You celebrate the + perdition of the man in you. You want to talk about it brazenly; even + to exaggerate it, and to swagger over it. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + The great public is no fool. It is huge and simple and slow in mental + processes, like a good-humoured giant, easy to please and grateful for + diversion. But it has a keen sense of its own dignity; it will not be + trifled with; it resents for ever the tongue in the cheek. + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + The beauty of horses, timid creatures, sensitive and graceful and + irrational as young girls, is a thing apart; and what is strange + is that their vast strength does not seem incongruous with it. To + be above that proud and lovely organism, listening, apprehensive, + palpitating, nervous far beyond the human, to feel one’s self almost + part of it by intimate contact, to yield to it, and make it yield, + to draw from it into one’s self some of its exultant vitality--in a + word, to ride--I can comprehend a fine enthusiasm for that. + + +_Thirty_ + + The respectable portion of the male sex in England may be divided + into two classes, according to its method and manner of complete + immersion in water. One class, the more dashing, dashes into a cold + tub every morning. Another, the more cleanly, sedately takes a warm + bath every Saturday night. There can be no doubt that the former + class lends tone and distinction to the country, but the latter is + the nation’s backbone. + + +_Thirty-one_ + + Although you may easily practise upon the credulity of a child in + matters of fact, you cannot cheat his moral and social judgment. He + will add you up, and he will add anybody up, and he will estimate + conduct, upon principles of his own and in a manner terribly + impartial. Parents have no sterner nor more discerning critics than + their own children. + + + + +_April_ + + +_One_ + + A person’s character is, and can be, nothing else but the total + result of his habits of thought. + + +_Two_ + + Beware of hope, and beware of ambition! Each is excellently tonic, + like German competition, in moderation, but all of you are suffering + from self-indulgence in the first, and very many of you are ruining + your constitutions with the second. + + +_Three_ + + As a matter of fact, people “indulge” in remorse; it is a somewhat + vicious form of spiritual pleasure. + + +_Four_ + + When a thing is thoroughly well done it often has the air of being a + miracle. + + +_Five_ + + After all the shattering discoveries of science and conclusions of + philosophy, mankind has still to live with dignity amid hostile + nature, and in the presence of an unknowable power, and mankind can + only succeed in this tremendous feat by the exercise of faith and of + that mutual goodwill which is based in sincerity and charity. + + +_Six_ + + All the days that are to come will more or less resemble the present + day, until you die. + + +_Seven_ + + In literature, when nine hundred and ninety-nine souls ignore you, + but the thousandth buys your work, or at least borrows it--that is + called enormous popularity. + + +_Eight_ + + If life is not a continual denial of the past, then it is nothing. + + +_Nine_ + + The profoundest belief of the average man is that virtue ought never + to be its own reward. Shake that belief and you commit a cardinal + sin; you disturb his mental quietude. + + +_Ten_ + + It is notorious that the smaller the community, and the more + completely it is self-contained, the deeper will be its preoccupation + with its own trifling affairs. + + +_Eleven_ + + To my mind, most societies with a moral aim are merely clumsy + machines for doing simple jobs with the maximum of friction, expense + and inefficiency. I should define the majority of these societies as + a group of persons each of whom expects the others to do something + very wonderful. + + +_Twelve_ + + There is nothing like a sleepless couch for a clear vision of one’s + environment. + + +_Thirteen_ + + The supreme muddlers of living are often people of quite remarkable + intellectual faculty, with a quite remarkable gift of being wise for + others. + + +_Fourteen_ + + Our leading advertisers have richly proved that the public will + believe anything if they are told of it often enough. + + +_Fifteen_ + + Here’s a secret. No writer likes writing, at least not one in a + hundred, and the exception, ten to one, is a howling mediocrity. + That’s a fact. But all the same, they’re miserable if they don’t + write. + + +_Sixteen_ + + The first and noblest aim of imaginative literature is not either to + tickle or to stab the sensibilities, but to render a coherent view + of life’s apparent incoherence, to give shape to the amorphous, to + discover beauty which was hidden, to reveal essential truth. + + +_Seventeen_ + + There is a theory that a great public can appreciate a great novel, + that the highest modern expression of literary art need not appeal in + vain to the average reader. And I believe this to be true--provided + that such a novel is written with intent, and with a full knowledge + of the peculiar conditions to be satisfied; I believe that a novel + could be written which would unite in a mild ecstasy of praise the + two extremes--the most inclusive majority and the most exclusive + minority. + + +_Eighteen_ + + “Give us more brains, Lord!” ejaculated a great writer. Personally, I + think he would have been wiser if he had asked first for the power to + keep in order such brains as we have. + + +_Nineteen_ + + Under the incentive of a woman’s eyes, of what tremendous efforts + is a clever man not capable, and, deprived of it, to what depths of + stagnation will he not descend! + + +_Twenty_ + + Elegance is a form of beauty. It not only enhances beauty, but it is + the one thing which will console the eye for the absence of beauty. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + There are several ways of entering upon journalism. One is at once to + found or purchase a paper, and thus achieve the editorial chair at a + single step. This course is often adopted in novels, sometimes with + the happiest results; and much less often in real life, where the end + is invariably and inevitably painful. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + Existence rightly considered is a fair compromise between two + instincts--the instinct of hoping one day to live, and the instinct + to live here and now. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can + enter except by your permission. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + The average man is not half enough of an egotist. If egotism means a + terrific interest in one’s self, egotism is absolutely essential to + efficient living. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + Events have no significance except by virtue of the ideas from which + they spring; the clash of events is the clash of ideas, and out of + this clash the moral lesson inevitably emerges, whether we ask for + it or no. Hence every great book is a great moral book, and there is + a true and fine sense in which the average reader is justified in + regarding art as the handmaid of morality. + + +_Twenty-six_ + +_William Shakespeare’s Birthday_ + + Shakespeare is “taught” in schools; that is to say, 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 + Shakespeare. It is a mercy they don’t “teach” Blake. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + +_Herbert Spencer’s Birthday_ + + There are those who assert that Spencer was not a supreme genius! At + any rate he taught me intellectual courage; he taught me that nothing + is sacred that will not bear inspection; and I adore his memory. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + Unite the colossal with the gaudy, and you will not achieve the + sublime; but, unless you are deterred by humility and a sense + of humour, you may persuade yourself that you have done so, and + certainly most people will credit you with the genuine feat. + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + The average reader (like Goethe and Ste. Beuve) has his worse and his + better self, and there are times when he will yield to the former; + but on the whole his impulses are good. In every writer who earns + his respect and enduring love there is some central righteousness, + which is capable of being traced and explained, and at which it is + impossible to sneer. + + +_Thirty_ + + Literature is the art of using words. This is not a platitude, but a + truth of the first importance, a truth so profound that many writers + never get down to it, and so subtle that many other writers who think + they see it never in fact really comprehend it. The business of the + author is with words. The practisers of other arts, such as music and + painting, deal with ideas and emotions, but only the author has to + deal with them by means of words. Words are his exclusive possession + among creative artists and craftsmen. They are his raw material, + his tools and instruments, his manufactured product, his alpha and + omega. He may abound in ideas and emotions of the finest kind, + but those ideas and emotions cannot be said to have an effective + existence until they are expressed; they are limited to the extent of + their expression; and their expression is limited to the extent of + the author’s skill in the use of words. I smile when I hear people + say, “If I could _write_, if I could only put down what I feel--!” + Such people beg the whole question. The ability to _write_ is the + sole thing peculiar to literature--not the ability to think nor the + ability to feel, but the ability to write, to utilise words. + + + + +_May_ + + +_One_ + + Only a small minority of authors overwrite themselves. Most of the + good and the tolerable ones do not write enough. + + +_Two_ + + The entire business of success is a gigantic tacit conspiracy on the + part of the minority to deceive the majority. + + +_Three_ + + There are at least three women-journalists in Europe to-day whose + influence is felt in Cabinets and places where they govern (proving + that sex is not a bar to the proper understanding of _la haute + politique_); whereas the man who dares to write on fashions does not + exist. + + +_Four_ + + Habits are the very dickens to change. + + +_Five_ + + Not only is art a factor in life; it is a factor in all lives. The + division of the world into two classes, one of which has a monopoly + of what is called “artistic feeling,” is arbitrary and false. + Everyone is an artist, more or less; that is to say, there is no + person quite without that faculty of poetising, which, by seeing + beauty, creates beauty, and which, when it is sufficiently powerful + and articulate, constitutes the musical composer, the architect, the + imaginative writer, the sculptor, and the painter. + + +_Six_ + + Is it nothing to you to learn to understand that the world is not a + dull place? + + +_Seven_ + + In neither faith nor enthusiasm can a child compete with a convinced + adult. No child could believe in anything as passionately as the + modern millionaire believes in money, or as the modern social + reformer believes in the virtue of Acts of Parliament. + + +_Eight_ + + Literature, instead of being an accessory, is the fundamental _sine + qua non_ of complete living. + + +_Nine_ + + No novelist, however ingenious, who does not write what he feels, + and what, by its careful finish, approximately pleases himself, + can continue to satisfy the average reader. He may hang for years + precariously on the skirts of popularity, but in the end he will + fall; he will be found out. + + +_Ten_ + + Only the fool and the very young expect happiness. The wise merely + hope to be interested, at least not to be bored, in their passage + through this world. Nothing is so interesting as love and grief, and + the one involves the other. + + +_Eleven_ + + One of the commonest characteristics of the successful man is his + idleness, his immense capacity for wasting time. + + +_Twelve_ + + People who regard literary taste simply as an accomplishment, and + literature simply as a distraction, will never truly succeed, either + in acquiring the accomplishment or in using it half-acquired as a + distraction. + + +_Thirteen_ + + The finest souls have their reactions, their rebellions against wise + reason. + + +_Fourteen_ + + My theory is that politeness, instead of decreasing with + intimacy--should increase! And when I say “Politeness” I mean common, + superficial politeness. I don’t mean the deep-down sort of thing that + you can only detect with a divining-rod. + + +_Fifteen_ + + Marcus Aurelius is assuredly regarded as the greatest of writers in + the human machine school, and not to read him daily is considered by + many to be a bad habit. + + +_Sixteen_ + + Part of the secret of Balzac’s unique power over the reader is the + unique tendency of his own interest in the thing to be told. + + +_Seventeen_ + +_“Anna of the Five Towns” finished 1901_ + + The art of fiction is the art of telling a story. This statement is + not so obvious and unnecessary as it may seem. Most beginners and + many “practised hands” attend to all kinds of things before they + attend to the story. With them the art of fiction is the art of + describing character or landscape, of getting “atmosphere,” and of + being humorous, pathetic, flippant, or terrifying; while the story + is a perfunctory excuse for these feats. They are so busy with the + traditional paraphernalia of fiction, with the tricks of the craft, + that what should be the principal business is reduced to a subsidiary + task. They forget that character, landscape, atmosphere, humour, + pathos, etc., are not ends in themselves, but only means toward an + end. + + +_Eighteen_ + + How true it is that the human soul is solitary, that content is the + only true riches, and that to be happy we must be good. + + +_Nineteen_ + + Men of letters who happen to have genius do not write for men of + letters. They write, as Wagner was proud to say he composed, for the + ordinary person. + + +_Twenty_ + + Great success never depends on the practice of the humbler virtues, + though it may occasionally depend on the practice of the prouder + vices. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + “I’ve been to the National Gallery twice, and, upon my word, I was + almost the only person there! And it’s free, too! People don’t + _want_ picture-galleries. If they did, they’d go. Who ever saw a + public-house empty, or Peter Robinson’s? And you have to pay there!” + + +_Twenty-two_ + + He who has not been “presented to the freedom” of literature has not + wakened up out of his prenatal sleep. He is merely not born. He can’t + see; he can’t hear; he can’t feel in any full sense. He can only eat + his dinner. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + All the arts are a conventionalisation, an ordering of nature. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + The aim of literary study is not to amuse the hours of leisure; it is + to awake oneself, it is to be alive, to intensify one’s capacity for + pleasure, for sympathy, and for comprehension. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + Like every aging artist of genuine accomplishment, he knew--none + better--that there is no satisfaction save the satisfaction of + fatigue after honest endeavour. He knew--none better--that wealth and + glory and fine clothes are naught, and that striving is all. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + Prepare to live by all means, but for Heaven’s sake do not forget to + live. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + +_My Birthday_ + + Sometimes I suddenly halt and address myself: “You may be richer or + you may be poorer; you may live in greater pomp and luxury, or in + less. The point is, that you will always be, essentially, what you + are now. You have no real satisfaction to look forward to except + the satisfaction of continually inventing, fancying, imagining, + scribbling. Say another thirty years of these emotional ingenuities, + these interminable variations on the theme of beauty. Is it good + enough?” And I answered: “Yes.” But who knows? Who can preclude the + regrets of the dying couch? + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + The balanced sanity of a great mind makes impossible exaggeration, + and, therefore, distortion. + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + No art that is not planned in form is worth consideration, and no + life that is not planned in convention can ever be satisfactory. + + +_Thirty_ + + The value of restraint is seldom inculcated upon women. Indeed, + its opposites--gush and a tendency to hysteria--are regarded, in + many respectable quarters, as among the proper attributes of true + womanliness; attributes to be artistically cultivated. + + +_Thirty-one_ + + There grows in the North Country a certain kind of youth of whom + it may be said that he is born to be a Londoner. The metropolis, + and everything that appertains to it, that comes down from it, that + goes up into it, has for him an imperious fascination. Long before + schooldays are over he learns to take a doleful pleasure in watching + the exit of the London train from the railway station. He stands by + the hot engine and envies the very stoker. Gazing curiously into the + carriages he wonders that men and women, who in a few hours will be + treading streets called Piccadilly and the Strand, can contemplate + the immediate future with so much apparent calmness; some of them + even have the audacity to look bored. He finds it difficult to keep + from throwing himself in the guard’s van as it glides past him; and + not until the last coach is a speck upon the distance does he turn + away and, nodding absently to the ticket-clerk, who knows him well, + go home to nurse a vague ambition and dream of town. + + + + +_June_ + + +_One_ + + To cultivate and nourish a grievance when you have five hundred + pounds in your pocket, in cash, is the most difficult thing in the + world. + + +_Two_ + + The full beauty of an activity is never brought out until it is + subjected to discipline and strict ordering and nice balancing. + + +_Three_ + + The unfading charm of classical music is that you never tire of it. + + +_Four_ + + The spirit of literature is unifying; it joins the candle and the + star, and by the magic of an image shows that the beauty of the + greater is in the less. + + +_Five_ + + If people, by merely wishing to do so, could regularly and seriously + read, observe, write, and use every faculty and sense, there would be + very little mental inefficiency. + + +_Six_ + + Laws and rules, forms and ceremonies, are good in themselves, from + a merely æsthetic point of view, apart from their social value and + necessity. + + +_Seven_ + + Fashionable women have a manner of sitting down quite different + from that of ordinary women. They only touch the back of the chair + at the top. They don’t loll but they only escape lolling by dint of + gracefulness. It is an affair of curves, slants, descents, nicely + calculated. They elaborately lead your eye downwards over gradually + increasing expanses, and naturally you expect to see their feet--and + you don’t see their feet. The thing is apt to be disturbing to + unhabituated beholders. + + +_Eight_ + + There are moments in the working day of every novelist when + he feels deeply that anything--road-mending, shop-walking, + housebreaking--would be better than this eternal torture of the + brain; but such moments pass. + + +_Nine_ + + During a long and varied career as a bachelor, I have noticed that + marriage is usually the death of politeness between a man and a + woman. I have noticed that the stronger the passion the weaker the + manners. + + +_Ten_ + + My sense of security amid the collisions of existence lies in the + firm consciousness that just as my body is the servant of my mind, so + is my mind the servant of _me_. + + +_Eleven_ + + The fault of the epoch is the absence of meditativeness. + + +_Twelve_ + + People who don’t want to live, people who would sooner hibernate than + feel intensely, will be wise to eschew literature. + + +_Thirteen_ + + No one is so sure of achieving the aims of the literary craftsman as + the man who has something to say and wishes to say it simply and have + done with it. + + +_Fourteen_ + + The mind can only be conquered by regular meditation, by deciding + beforehand what direction its activity ought to take, and insisting + that its activity take that direction; also by never leaving it idle, + undirected, masterless, to play at random like a child in the streets + after dark. + + +_Fifteen_ + + The enterprise of forming one’s literary taste is an agreeable one; + if it is not agreeable it cannot succeed. + + +_Sixteen_ + + The attitude of the average decent person towards the classics of his + own tongue is one of distrust--I had almost said, of fear. + + +_Seventeen_ + + Am I, a portion of the Infinite Force that existed billions of years + ago, and which will exist billions of years hence, going to allow + myself to be worried by any terrestrial physical or mental event? I + am not. + + +_Eighteen_ + + There is not a successful inexpert author writing to-day who would + not be more successful--who would not be better esteemed and in + receipt of a larger income--if he had taken the trouble to become + expert. Skill does count; skill is always worth its cost in time and + labour. + + +_Nineteen_ + + It is easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is from the top. + + +_Twenty_ + + For me there is no supremacy in art. When fifty artists have + contrived to be supreme, supremacy becomes impossible. Take a little + song by Grieg. It is perfect, it is supreme. No one could be greater + than Grieg was great when he wrote that song. The whole last act + of _The Twilight of the Gods_ is not greater than a little song of + Grieg’s. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + We talked books. We just simply enumerated books without end, + praising or damning them, and arranged authors in neat pews, like + cattle in classes at an agricultural show. No pastime is more + agreeable to people who have the book disease, and none more quickly + fleets the hours, and none is more delightfully futile. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + The law of gravity is absurd and indefensible when you fall + downstairs; but you obey it. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + It is difficult to make a reputation, but it is even more difficult + seriously to mar a reputation once properly made--so faithful is the + public. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + That which has cost a sacrifice is always endeared. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + If literary aspirants genuinely felt that literature was the art + of using words, bad, slipshod writing--writing that stultifies the + thought and emotion which it is designed to render effective--would + soon be a thing of the past. For they would begin at the beginning as + apprentices to all other arts are compelled to. The serious student + of painting who began his apprenticeship by trying to paint a family + group, would be regarded as a lunatic. But the literary aspirant + who begins with a novel is precisely that sort of lunatic, and the + fact that he sometimes gets himself into print does not in the least + mitigate his lunacy. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + In spite of all the differences which we have invented, mankind is + a fellowship of brothers, overshadowed by insoluble and fearful + mysteries, and dependent upon mutual goodwill and trust for the + happiness it may hope to achieve. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + The brain is a servant, exterior to the central force of the Ego. If + it is out of control, the reason is not that it is uncontrollable but + merely that its discipline has been neglected. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + I have been told by one of our greatest novelists that he constantly + reads the dictionary, and that in his youth he read the dictionary + through several times. I may recount the anecdote of Buckle, the + historian of civilisation, who, when a certain dictionary was + mentioned in terms of praise, said: “Yes, it is one of the few + dictionaries I have read through with pleasure.” + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + The public may, and generally does, admire a great artist. But it + begins (and sometimes ends) by admiring him for the wrong things. + Shakespeare is more highly regarded for his philosophy than for his + poetry, as the applause at any performance of “Hamlet” will prove. + Balzac conquers by that untamed exuberance and those crude effects of + melodrama which are the least valuable parts of him. + + +_Thirty_ + + You cannot divide literature into two elements and say: This is + matter and that style. Further, 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 phenomenon: by the exercise + of common-sense. Common-sense will tell you that nobody, not even a + genius, can be simultaneously vulgar and distinguished, or beautiful + and ugly, or precise and vague, or tender and harsh. And common-sense + will therefore tell you that to try to set up vital contradictions + between matter and style is absurd. If you refer literature to the + standards of life, common-sense will at once decide which quality + should count heaviest in your esteem. + + + + +_July_ + + +_One_ + + When one has really something to say, one does not use clichés; one + cannot. + + +_Two_ + + The extinguishing of desire, with an accompanying indifference, be it + high or low, is bad for youth. + + +_Three_ + + Do you suppose that if the fame of Shakespeare depended on the man in + the street, it would survive a fortnight? + + +_Four_ + + Common-sense will solve any problem--any!--always provided it is + employed simultaneously with politeness. + + +_Five_ + + London is the most provincial town in England--invariably vulgar, + reactionary, hysterical, and behind the rest of the country. A nice + sort of place England would be if we in the provinces had to copy + London. + + +_Six_ + + Progress is the gradual result of the unending battle between human + reason and human instinct, in which the former slowly but surely wins. + + +_Seven_ + + As an athlete trains, as an acrobat painfully tumbles in private, so + must the literary aspirant write. + + +_Eight_ + + A classic is a work which gives pleasure to the minority which is + intensely and permanently interested in literature. + + +_Nine_ + + It is said that geography makes history. In England, and especially + in London, weather makes a good deal of history. + + +_Ten_ + + The one primary essential to literary taste is a hot interest in + literature. If you have that, all the rest will come. + + +_Eleven_ + + In the Five Towns human nature is reported to be so hard that you can + break stones on it. Yet sometimes it softens, and then we have one + of our rare idylls of which we are very proud, while pretending not + to be. The soft and delicate South would possibly not esteem highly + our idylls, as such. Nevertheless they are our idylls, idyllic for + us, and reminding us, by certain symptoms, that, though we never cry, + there is concealed somewhere within our bodies a fount of happy tears. + + +_Twelve_ + + Reason is the basis of personal dignity. + + +_Thirteen_ + + It is by the passionate few that the renown of genius is kept alive + from one generation to another. + + +_Fourteen_ + + We are all of us the same in essence; what separates us is merely + differences in our respective stages of evolution. + + +_Fifteen_ + + It is well known that dignity will only bleed while you watch it. + Avert your eyes and it instantly dries up. + + +_Sixteen_ + + All literature is the expression of feeling, of passion, of emotion, + caused by a sensation of the interestingness of life. + + +_Seventeen_ + + Just as science is the development of common-sense, so is literature + the development of common daily speech. + + +_Eighteen_ + + Every man who thinks clearly can write clearly, if not with grace and + technical correctness. + + +_Nineteen_ + + It is important, if you wish ultimately to have a wide, catholic + taste, to guard against the too common assumption that nothing modern + will stand comparison with the classics. + + +_Twenty_ + + In the matter of its own special activities the brain is usually + undisciplined and unreliable. We never know what it will do next. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + It’s the dodge of every begging-letter writer in England to mark his + envelope “Private and Urgent.” + + +_Twenty-two_ + + Women grow old; women cease to learn; but men, never. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + In literature, but in nothing else, I am a propagandist; I am not + content to keep my opinion and let others keep theirs. To have a + worthless book in my house (save in the way of business), to know + that any friend is enjoying it, actually distresses me. That book + must go, the pretensions of that book must be exposed, if I am to + enjoy peace of mind. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + I have often thought: If a son could look into a mother’s heart, what + an eyeopener he would have! + + +_Twenty-five_ + + When a writer expresses his individuality and his mood with accuracy, + lucidity, and sincerity, and with an absence of ugliness, then he + achieves good style. Style--it cannot be too clearly understood--is + not a certain splendid something which the writer adds to his + meaning. It is _in_ the meaning; it is that part of the meaning which + specially reflects his individuality and his mood. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + Crime is simply a convenient monosyllable which we apply to what + happens when the brain and the heart come into conflict and the brain + is defeated. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + Reflect that, as a rule, the people whom you have come to esteem + communicated themselves to you gradually, that they did not begin the + entertainment with fireworks. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + To devise the contents of an issue, to plan them, to balance them; + to sail with this wind and tack against that; to keep a sensitive, + cool finger on the faintly beating pulse of the terrible many-headed + patron; to walk in a straight line through a forest black as + midnight; to guess the riddle of the circulation-book week by week; + to know by instinct why Smiths sent in a repeat order, or why + Simpkins’ was ten quires less; to keep one eye on the majestic march + of the world, and the other on the vagaries of a bazaar-reporter + who has forgotten the law of libel; these things, and seventy-seven + others, are the real journalism. It is these things that make editors + sardonic, grey, unapproachable. + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + I will be bold enough to say that quite seventy per cent. of ambition + is never realised at all, and that ninety per cent. of all realised + ambition is fruitless. + + +_Thirty_ + + To comply with the regulations ordained by English Society for the + conduct of successful painters, he ought, first, to have taken the + elementary precaution of being born in the United States. He ought, + after having refused all interviews for months, to have ultimately + granted a special one to a newspaper with the largest circulation. He + ought to have returned to England, grown a mane and a tufted tail, + and become the king of beasts; or at least to have made a speech at a + banquet about the noble and purifying mission of art. Assuredly, he + ought to have painted the portrait of his father or grandfather as an + artisan to prove that he was not a snob. + + +_Thirty-one_ + + Women enjoy a reputation for slipshod style. They have earned it. + A long and intimate familiarity with the manuscript of hundreds + of women-writers, renowned and otherwise, has convinced me that + not ten per cent. of them can be relied upon to satisfy even the + most ordinary tests in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I do + not hesitate to say that if twenty of the most honoured and popular + women-writers were asked to sit for an examination in these simple + branches of learning, the general result (granted that a few might + emerge with credit) would not only startle themselves, but would + provide innocent amusement for the rest of mankind. + + + + +_August_ + + +_One_ + + My theory is that if a really big concern is properly organized, the + boss ought to be absolutely independent of all routine. He ought to + be free for anything that turns up unexpectedly. + + +_Two_ + + Often I have felt that: “I know enough, I feel enough. If my future + is as long as my past, I shall still not be able to put down the + tenth part of what I have already acquired.” + + +_Three_ + + In journalism, as probably in no other profession, success depends + wholly upon the loyal co-operation, the perfect reliability, of a + number of people--some great, some small, but none irresponsible. + + +_Four_ + + 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 phenomenon: by the exercise of common-sense. + + +_Five_ + + All wrong-doing is done in the sincere belief that it is the best + thing to do. + + +_Six_ + + There is always a mental inferior handy, just as there is always a + being more unhappy than we are. + + +_Seven_ + + Often have I said inwardly: “World, when I talk with you, dine with + you, wrangle with you, love you, and hate you, I condescend.” Every + artist has said that. People call it conceit; people may call it what + they please. + + +_Eight_ + + The artistic pleasures of an uncultivated mind are generally violent. + + +_Nine_ + + Literature cannot be said to have served its true purpose until it + has been translated into the actual life of him who reads. + + +_Ten_ + + When you cannot express yourself, depend upon it that you have + nothing precise to express. + + +_Eleven_ + + Monotony, solitude, are essential to the full activity of the artist. + Just as a horse is seen best when coursing alone over a great + plain, so the fierce and callous egotism of the artist comes to its + perfection in a vast expanse of custom, leisure, and apparently + vacuous reverie. + + +_Twelve_ + + There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than + he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says + nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row. + + +_Thirteen_ + + We can no more spend all our waking hours in consciously striving + towards higher things than we can dine exclusively off jam. + + +_Fourteen_ + + All spending is a matter of habit. + + +_Fifteen_ + + The views from Richmond Hill or Hindhead, or along Pall Mall + at sunset, the smell of the earth, the taste of fruit and of + kisses--these things are unaffected by the machinations of trusts and + the hysteria of stock exchanges. + + +_Sixteen_ + + If there is one point common to all classics, it is the absence of + exaggeration. + + +_Seventeen_ + + It is only people of small moral stature who have to stand on their + dignity. + + +_Eighteen_ + + When you live two and a half miles from a railway you can cut a dash + on an income which in London spells omnibus instead of cab. For + myself, I have a profound belief in the efficacy of cutting a dash. + + +_Nineteen_ + + No one can write correctly without deliberately and laboriously + learning how to write correctly. On the other hand, everyone can + learn to write correctly who takes sufficient trouble. Correct + writing is a mechanical accomplishment; it could be acquired by a + stockbroker. + + +_Twenty_ + + An understanding appreciation of literature means an understanding + appreciation of the world, and it means nothing else. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and + amusing than much money without ingenuity. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + Nothing is easier than to explain an accomplished fact in a nice, + agreeable, conventional way. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + Literature is the art of using words. This is not a platitude, but a + truth of the first importance, a truth so profound that many writers + never get down to it, and so subtle that many other writers who think + they see it never in fact really comprehend it. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + In the choice of reading the individual must count; caprice must + count, for caprice is often the truest index to the individuality. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + There is an infection in the air of London, a zymotic influence + which is the mysterious cause of unnaturalness, pose, affectation, + artificiality, moral neuritis, and satiety. One loses grasp of the + essentials in an undue preoccupation with the vacuities which society + has invented. The distractions are too multiform. One never gets a + chance to talk common-sense with one’s soul. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + An early success is a snare. The inexperienced author takes too much + for granted. Conceit overcomes him. He regards himself with an undue + seriousness. He thinks that he is founded on granite for ever. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + The splendid pertinacity and ingenuity of the American journalist + in wringing copy out of any and every side of existence cannot fail + to quicken the pulse of those who are accustomed to the soberer, + narrower, sleepier ways of English newspapers. Fleet Street pretends + to despise and contemn American methods, yet a gradual Americanising + of the English press is always taking place, with results on the + whole admirable. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + Stand defiantly on your own feet, and do not excuse yourself to + yourself. + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + This is a matter of daily observation: that people are frantically + engaged in attempting to get hold of things which, by universal + experience, are hideously disappointing to those who have obtained + possession of them. + + +_Thirty_ + + It is a current impression that style is something apart from, + something foreign to, matter--a beautiful robe which, once it is + found, may be used to clothe the nudity of matter. Young writers + wander forth searching for style, as one searches for that which is + hidden. They might employ themselves as profitably in looking for the + noses on their faces. For style is personal, as much a portion of + one’s self as the voice. It is within, not without; it needs only to + be elicited, brought to light. + + +_Thirty-one_ + + When I had been in London a decade, I stood aside from myself and + reviewed my situation with the god-like and detached impartiality + of a trained artistic observer. And what I saw was a young man who + pre-eminently knew his way about, and who was apt to be rather too + complacent over this fact; a young man with some brilliance but far + more shrewdness; a young man with a highly developed faculty for + making a little go a long way; a young man who was accustomed to be + listened to when he thought fit to speak, and who was decidedly more + inclined to settle questions than to raise them. + + + + +_September_ + + +_One_ + + It is of no use beginning to air one’s views until one has collected + an audience. + + +_Two_ + + A man whom fate had pitched into a canal might accomplish miracles in + the way of rendering himself amphibian: he might stagger the world by + the spectacle of his philosophy under amazing difficulties; people + might pay sixpence a head to come and see him; but he would be less + of a nincompoop if he climbed out and arranged to live definitely on + the bank. + + +_Three_ + + The contemplation of hills is uplifting to the soul; it leads to + inspiration and induces nobility of character. + + +_Four_ + + Plot is the primary thing in fiction. Only a very clever craftsman + can manipulate a feeble plot so as to make it even passably + interesting. Whereas, the clumsiest bungler in narration cannot + altogether spoil a really sound plot. + + +_Five_ + + It cannot be too clearly understood that the professional author, the + man who depends entirely on his pen for the continuance of breath, + and whose income is at the mercy of an illness or a headache, is + eternally compromising between glory and something more edible and + warmer at nights. He labours, in the first place, for food, shelter, + tailors, a woman, European travel, horses, stalls at the opera, good + cigars, ambrosial evenings in restaurants; and he gives glory the + best chance he can. I am not speaking of geniuses with a mania for + posterity; I am speaking of human beings. + + +_Six_ + + The average man flourishes and finds his ease in an atmosphere of + peaceful routine. Men destined for success flourish and find their + ease in an atmosphere of collision and disturbance. + + +_Seven_ + + There are simply thousands of agreeable and good girls who can + accomplish herring-bone, omelettes, and simultaneous equations in a + breath, as it were. They are all over the kingdom, and may be seen in + the streets and lanes thereof about half-past eight in the morning + and again about five o’clock in the evening. But the fact is not + generally known. Only the stern and base members of School Boards or + Education Committees know it. And they are so used to marvels that + they make nothing of them. + + +_Eight_ + + In the sea of literature every part communicates with every other + part; there are no land-locked lakes. + + +_Nine_ + + With an obedient, disciplined brain a man may live always right up to + the standard of his best moments. + + +_Ten_ + + A prig is a pompous fool who has gone out for a ceremonial walk, and, + without knowing it, has lost an important part of his attire, namely, + his sense of humour. + + +_Eleven_ + + If I have an aptitude for anything at all in letters, it is for + criticism. Whenever I read a book of imagination, I am instantly + filled with ideas concerning it; I form definite views about its + merit or demerit, and, having formed them, I hold those views with + strong conviction. Denial of them rouses me; I must thump the table + in support of them; I must compel people to believe that what I say + is true; I cannot argue without getting serious, in spite of myself. + + +_Twelve_ + + The great convenience of masterpieces is that they are so + astonishingly lucid. + + +_Thirteen_ + + It is as well not to chatter too much about what one is doing, and + not to betray a too-pained sadness at the spectacle of a whole world + deliberately wasting so many hours out of every day, and therefore + never really living. It will be found, ultimately, that in taking + care of one’s self one has quite all one can do. + + +_Fourteen_ + + Think as well as read. I know people who read and read, and, for all + the good it does them, they might just as well cut bread-and-butter. + They take to reading as better men take to drink. They fly through + the shires of literature on a motor-car, their sole object being + motion. They will tell you how many books they have read in a year. + + +_Fifteen_ + + The mass could not, and never at any period of history did, + appreciate fine art, but could and would appreciate and support + passable deteriorations of fine art. + + +_Sixteen_ + + Honesty, in literature as in life, is the quality that counts first + and counts last. + + +_Seventeen_ + + No author ever lived who could write a page without giving himself + away. + + +_Eighteen_ + + To be one’s natural self is the most difficult thing in literature. + To be one’s natural self in a drawing-room full of observant eyes + is scarcely the gift of the simple debutant, but rather of the + experienced diner-out. So in literature: it is not the expert but the + unpractised beginner who is guilty of artificiality. + + +_Nineteen_ + + Much nonsense has been talked about the short story. It has been + asserted that Englishmen cannot write artistic short stories, that + the short story does not come naturally to the Anglo-Saxon. Whereas + the truth is that nearly all the finest short-story writers in the + world to-day are Englishmen, and some of the most wonderful short + stories ever written have been written by Englishmen within the last + twenty years. + + +_Twenty_ + + If a book really moves you to anger, the chances are that it is a + good book. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + In the cultivation of the mind one of the most important factors is + precisely the feeling of strain, of difficulty, of a task which one + part of you is anxious to achieve and another part of you is anxious + to shirk. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + The very greatest poetry can only be understood and savoured by + people who have put themselves through a considerable mental + discipline. To others it is an exasperating weariness. + + +_Twenty-three_ + +_Samuel Johnson’s Birthday_ + + Even Johnson’s Dictionary is packed with emotion. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + All blame, uttered or unexpressed, is wrong. I do not blame myself. I + can explain myself to myself. I can invariably explain myself. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + When one has thoroughly got imbued into one’s head the leading + truth that nothing happens without a cause, one grows not only + large-minded, but large-hearted. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + If an editor knows not peace, he knows power. In Fleet Street, as + in other streets, the population divides itself into those who want + something and those who have something to bestow; those who are + anxious to give a lunch, and those who deign occasionally to accept + a lunch; those who have an axe to grind, and those who possess the + grindstone. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + Regard, for a moment, the average household in the light of a + business organisation for lodging and feeding a group of individuals; + contrast its lapses, makeshifts, delays, irregularities, continual + excuses with the awful precision of a city office. Is it a matter + for surprise that the young woman who is accustomed gaily to remark, + “Only five minutes late this morning, father,” or “I quite forgot to + order the coals, dear,” confident that a frown or a hard word will + end the affair, should carry into business (be it never so grave) the + laxities so long permitted her in the home? + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + This I know and affirm, that the average woman-journalist is the + most loyal, earnest, and teachable person under the sun. I begin + to feel sentimental when I think of her astounding earnestness, + even in grasping the live coal of English syntax. Syntax, bane of + writing-women, I have spent scores of ineffectual hours in trying to + inoculate the ungrammatical sex against your terrors! + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + I have never refused work when the pay has been good. + + +_Thirty_ + + There is no logical answer to a guffaw. + + + + +_October_ + + +_One_ + + A most curious and useful thing to realise is that one never knows + the impression one is creating on other people. + + +_Two_ + + At seventy men begin to be separated from their fellow-creatures. At + eighty they are like islets sticking out of a sea. At eighty-five, + with their trembling and deliberate speech, they are the abstract + voice of human wisdom. They gather wisdom with amazing rapidity in + the latter years, and even their folly is wise then. + + +_Three_ + + In its essence all fiction is wildly improbable, and its fundamental + improbability is masked by an observance of probability in details. + + +_Four_ + + Only reviewers have a prejudice against long novels. + + +_Five_ + + The most important of all perceptions is the continual perception of + cause and effect--in other words, the perception of the continuous + development of the universe--in still other words, the perception of + the course of evolution. + + +_Six_ + + No reading of books will take the place of a daily, candid, honest + examination of what one has recently done, and what one is about to + do--of a steady looking at one’s self in the face (disconcerting + though the sight may be). + + +_Seven_ + + The beauty of a classic is not at all apt to knock you down. It will + steal over you, rather. + + +_Eight_ + + Self-respect is at the root of all purposefulness, and a failure in + an enterprise deliberately planned deals a desperate wound at one’s + self-respect. + + +_Nine_ + + A man may be a sub-editor, or even an assistant-editor, for half + a lifetime, and yet remain ignorant of the true significance of + journalism. + + +_Ten_ + + Happiness does not spring from the procuring of physical or mental + pleasure, but from the development of reason and the adjustment of + conduct to principles. + + +_Eleven_ + + The heart is convinced that custom is a virtue. The heart of the + dirty working-man rebels when the State insists that he shall be + clean, for no other reason than that it is his custom to be dirty. + + +_Twelve_ + + To be honest with oneself is not so simple as it appears. + + +_Thirteen_ + + “My wife will never understand,” said Mr. Brindley, “that complete + confidence between two human beings is impossible.” + + +_Fourteen_ + + Demanding honesty from your authors, you must see that you render it + yourself. + + +_Fifteen_ + + Imagine the technical difficulties of a painter whose canvas was + always being rolled off one stick on to another stick, and who was + compelled to do his picture inch by inch, seeing nothing but the + particular inch which happened to be under his brush. That difficulty + is only one of the difficulties of the novelist. + + +_Sixteen_ + + It is a fact that few novelists enjoy the creative labour, though + most enjoy thinking about the creative labour. Novelists enjoy + writing novels no more than ploughmen enjoy following the plough. + They regard business as a “grind.” + + +_Seventeen_ + + The born journalist comes into the world with the fixed notion + that nothing under the sun is uninteresting. He says: “I cannot + pass along the street, or cut a finger, or marry, or catch a cold + or a fish, or go to church, or perform any act whatever, without + being impressed anew by the interestingness of mundane phenomena, + and without experiencing a desire to share this impression with my + fellow-creatures.” + + +_Eighteen_ + + Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by + drawbacks and discomforts. + + +_Nineteen_ + + It is much easier to begin a novel than to finish it. This statement + applies to many enterprises, but to none with more force than to a + long art-work such as a novel or a play. + + +_Twenty_ + + A true book is not always great. But a great book is never untrue. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + The impossible had occurred. I was no longer a mere journalist; I was + an author. “After all, it’s nothing,” I said, with that intense and + unoriginal humanity which distinguishes all of us. And in a blinding + flash I saw that an author was in essence the same thing as a grocer + or a duke. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + When the reason and the heart come into conflict the heart is + invariably wrong. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + Marriage is excessively prosaic and eternal, not at all what you + expect it to be. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + I do not forget that the realism of one age is the conventionality + of the next. In the main the tendency of art is always to reduce + and simplify its conventions, thus necessitating an increase of + virtuosity in order to obtain the same effects of shapeliness and + rhythm. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + For the majority of people the earth is a dull planet. It is only a + Stevenson who can say: “I never remember being bored,” and one may + fairly doubt whether even Stevenson uttered truth when he made that + extraordinary statement. None of us escapes boredom entirely; some of + us, indeed, are bored during the greater part of our lives. The fact + is unpalatable, but it is a fact. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + An average of over an hour a day given to the mind should permanently + and completely enliven the whole activity of the mind. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + A large class of people positively resent being thrilled by a work of + fiction, and the domestic serial is meant to appeal to this class. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + It is natural that people who concern themselves with art only in + their leisure moments, demanding from it nothing but a temporary + distraction, should prefer the obvious to the recondite, and should + walk regardless of beauty unless it forces itself upon their + attention by means of exaggerations and advertisement. The public + wants to be struck, hit squarely in the face; then it will take + notice. + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + When a book attains a large circulation one usually says that it + succeeds. But the fine books succeed of themselves, by their own + virtue, and apart from the acclamatory noises of fame. Immure them in + cabinets, cast them into Sahara; still they imperturbably succeed. + If, on a rare occasion, such a book sells by scores of thousands, it + is not the book but the public which succeeds; it is not the book but + the public which has emerged splendidly from a trial. + + +_Thirty_ + + The artists who have courage fully to exploit their own temperaments + are always sufficiently infrequent to be peculiarly noticeable and + welcome. Still more rare are they who, leaving it to others to sing + and emphasise the ideal and obvious beauties which all can in some + measure see, will exclusively exercise the artist’s prerogative as an + explorer of hidden and recondite beauty in unsuspected places. + + +_Thirty-one_ + + Bad books, by flattering you, by caressing, by appealing to the weak + or the base in you, will often persuade you what fine and splendid + books they are. + + + + +_November_ + + +_One_ + + It is well to remind ourselves that literature is first and last a + means of life, and that the enterprise of forming one’s literary + taste is an enterprise of learning how best to use this means of life. + + +_Two_ + + Instead of saying, “Sorry I can’t see you, old chap, but I have to + run off to the tennis club,” you must say, “... But I have to work.” + This, I admit, is intensely difficult to say. Tennis is so much more + urgent than the immortal soul. + + +_Three_ + + A talent never persuades or encourages the owner of it; it drives him + with a whip. + + +_Four_ + + One of the chief things which one has to learn is that the mental + faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity; they do not tire + like an arm or a leg. All they want is change, not rest, except in + sleep. + + +_Five_ + + Characterisation, the feat of individualising characters, is the + inmost mystery of imaginative literary art. It is of the very essence + of the novel. It never belongs to this passage or that. It is + implicit in the whole. It is always being done, and is never finished + till the last page is written. + + +_Six_ + + Can you deny that when you have something definite to look forward to + at eventide, something that is to employ all your energy, the thought + of that something gives a glow and a more intense vitality to the + whole day? + + +_Seven_ + + Most good books have begun by causing anger which disguised itself as + contempt. + + +_Eight_ + + When a thing is supreme there is nothing to be said. + + +_Nine_ + +_Ivan Sergeïtch Turgenev’s Birthday_ + + The author of a miracle like _On the Eve_ may be born, but he is + also made. In the matter of condensation alone Turgenev was unique + among the great literary artificers. He could say more in a chapter + of two thousand words than any other novelist that ever lived. What + he accomplishes again and again in a book of sixty thousand words, + Tolstoi could not have accomplished under a quarter of a million. + + +_Ten_ + + Fine taste in fiction is almost as rare among novelists as among the + general public. + + +_Eleven_ + + I have never once produced any literary work without a preliminary + incentive quite other than the incentive of ebullient imagination. + I have never “wanted to write,” until the extrinsic advantages of + writing had presented themselves to me. + + +_Twelve_ + + Beauty is strangely various. There is the beauty of light and joy and + strength exulting; but there is also the beauty of shade, of sorrow + and sadness, and of humility oppressed. The spirit of the sublime + dwells not only in the high and remote; it shines unperceived amid + all the usual meannesses of our daily existence. + + +_Thirteen_ + + Always give your fellow creature credit for good intentions. Do not + you, though sometimes mistakenly, always act for the best? You know + you do. And are you alone among mortals in rectitude? + + +_Fourteen_ + + There is no such case as the average case, just as there is no such + man as the average man. Every man and every man’s case is special. + + +_Fifteen_ + + Outside the department of fiction there are two kinds of + authors--those who want to write because they have something definite + to say, and those who want something definite to say because they can + write. + + +_Sixteen_ + + A lover is one who deludes himself; a journalist is one who deludes + himself and other people. + + +_Seventeen_ + + Although a very greedy eater of literature, I can only enjoy reading + when I have little time for reading. Give me three hours of absolute + leisure with nothing to do but read, and I instantly become almost + incapable of the act. + + +_Eighteen_ + + I would point out that literature by no means comprises the whole + field of knowledge, and that the disturbing thirst to improve one’s + self--to increase one’s knowledge--may well be slaked quite apart + from literature. + + +_Nineteen_ + + The public, by its casual approval, may give notoriety and a vogue + which passes, but it is incapable of the sustained ardour of + appreciation which alone results in authentic renown. It is incapable + because it is nonchalant. To the public art is a very little thing--a + distraction, the last resort against _ennui_. To the critics art + looms enormous. They do not merely possess views; they are possessed + by them. Their views amount to a creed, and that creed must be + spread. Quiescence is torment to the devotee. He cannot cry peace + when there is no peace. Passionate conviction, like murder, will out. + “I believe; therefore you must believe”: that is the motto which + moves the world. + + +_Twenty_ + + Only those who have lived at the full stretch seven days a week for + a long time can appreciate the full beauty of a regularly recurring + idleness. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + Publishers as a commercial class are neither more nor less honourable + than any other commercial class, and authors are neither more nor + less honourable than publishers. In the world of commerce one fights + for one’s own hand and keeps within the law; the code is universally + understood, and the man who thinks it ought to be altered because + _he_ happens to be inexperienced, is a fool. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + There can be no sort of doubt that unless I was prepared to flout the + wisdom of the ages, I ought to have refused his suggestion. But is + not the wisdom of the ages a medicine for majorities? And, indeed, I + was prepared to flout it, as in our highest and our lowest moments we + often are. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + London is chiefly populated by greyhaired men who for twenty years + have been about to become journalists and authors. And but for a + fortunate incident--the thumb of my Fate has always been turned + up--I might ere this have fallen back into that tragic rearguard of + Irresolutes. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + I think it is rather fine, this necessity for the tense bracing of + the will before anything worth doing can be done. I rather like it + myself. I feel it to be the chief thing that differentiates me from + the cat by the fire. + + +_Twenty-five_ + + The most important preliminary to the task of arranging one’s life so + that one may live fully and comfortably within one’s daily budget of + twenty-four hours, is the calm realisation of the extreme difficulty + of the task, of the sacrifices and the endless effort it demands. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + Whatever sin a man does he either does for his own benefit or for the + benefit of society. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + The critic’s first requisite is that he should be interested. A man + may have an instinctive good taste, but if his attitude is one of + apathy, then he is not a true critic. The opinions of the public are + often wrong; the opinions of the critic are usually right. But the + fundamental difference between these two bodies does not lie here; it + lies in the fact that the critics “care,” while the public does not + care. + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + When, after the theatre, a woman precedes a man into a carriage, does + she not publish and glory in the fact that she is his? Is it not the + most delicious of avowals? There is something in the enforced bend of + one’s head as one steps in. And when the man shuts the door with a + masculine snap---- + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + Ardour in well-doing is a misleading and a treacherous thing. It + cries out loudly for employment; you can’t satisfy it at first; it + wants more and more; it is eager to move mountains and divert the + course of rivers; it isn’t content till it perspires. And then, too + often, when it feels the perspiration on its brow, it wearies all + of a sudden and dies, without even putting itself to the trouble of + saying, “I’ve had enough of this.” + + +_Thirty_ + + Literature exists so that where one man has lived finely ten thousand + may afterwards live finely. + + + + +_December_ + + +_One_ + + To hear a master play a scale, to catch that measured, tranquil + succession of notes, each a different jewel of equal splendour, each + dying precisely when the next was born--this is to perceive at last + what music is made of, to have glimpses of the divine magic that is + the soul of the divinest art. + + +_Two_ + + When the swimmer unclothes, and abandons himself to the water, naked, + letting the water caress the whole of his nakedness, moving his limbs + in voluptuous ease untrammelled by even the lightest garment, then, + as never under other conditions, he is aware of his body; and perhaps + the thought occurs to him that to live otherwise than in that naked + freedom is not to live. + + +_Three_ + + Has it never struck you that you have at hand a machine wonderful + beyond all mechanisms in sheds, intricate, delicately adjustable, of + astounding and miraculous possibilities, interminably interesting? + That machine is yourself. + + +_Four_ + + The sound reputation of an artist is originally due never to the + public, but to the critics. I do not use the word “critic” in a + limited, journalistic sense; it is meant to include all those + persons, whether scribes or not, who have genuine convictions about + art. + + +_Five_ + + The movement for opening museums on Sundays is the most natural + movement that could be conceived. For if ever a resort was invented + and fore-ordained to chime with the true spirit of the British + Sabbath, that resort is the average museum. + + +_Six_ + + The manufacture of musical comedy is interesting and curious, but I + am not aware that it has anything to do with dramatic art. + + +_Seven_ + + Though you have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton + Hotel, you cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the + cat by the fire has. + + +_Eight_ + + The man of business, even in the very daily act of deceit, will never + yield up the conviction that, after all, at bottom he is crystal + honest. It is his darling delusion. + + +_Nine_ + + Happiness is not joy, and it is not tranquillity. It is something + deeper and something more disturbing. Perhaps it is an acute sense of + life, a realisation of one’s secret being, a continual renewal of the + mysterious savour of existence. + + +_Ten_ + + Our best plays, as works of art, are strikingly inferior to our best + novels. A large section of the educated public ignores the modern + English theatre as being unworthy of attention. + + +_Eleven_ + + Romance, interest, dwell not in the thing seen, but in the eye of the + beholder. + + +_Twelve_ + + Every bookish person has indulgently observed the artless absorption + and surrender with which a “man of action” reads when by chance a + book captures him, his temporary monomania, his insistence that + the bookish person shall share his joy, and his impatience at any + exhibition of indifference. For the moment the terrible man of action + is a child again; he who has straddled the world is like a provincial + walking with open-mouthed delight through the streets of the capital. + + +_Thirteen_ + + The woman who quarrels with a maid is clumsy, and the woman who + quarrels with a good maid is either a fool or in a nervous, + hysterical condition, or both. + + +_Fourteen_ + + Men have a habit of taking themselves for granted, and that habit is + responsible for nine-tenths of the boredom and despair on the face of + the planet. + + +_Fifteen_ + + Anyone can learn to write, and to write well, in any given style; + but to see, to discern the interestingness which is veiled from the + crowd--that comes not by tuition; rather by intuition. + + +_Sixteen_ + + The forms of faith change, but the spirit of faith is immortal amid + its endless vicissitudes. + + +_Seventeen_ + + Consider the attitude of Dissenters of the trading and industrial + classes towards the art of literature.... That attitude is at once + timid, antagonistic, and resentful. Timid, because print still has + for the unlettered a mysterious sanction; antagonistic because + Puritanism and the arts have by no means yet settled their quarrel; + resentful because the autocratic power of art over the imagination + and the intelligence is felt without being understood. + + +_Eighteen_ + + It is said that men are only interested in themselves. The truth is + that, as a rule, men are interested in every mortal thing except + themselves. + + +_Nineteen_ + + It is less difficult, I should say, to succeed moderately in + journalism than to succeed moderately in dressmaking. + + +_Twenty_ + + Music cannot be said. One art cannot be translated into another. + + +_Twenty-one_ + + A deep-seated objection to the intrusion of even the most loved male + at certain times is common, I think, to all women. Women are capable + of putting love aside, like a rich dress, and donning the _peignoir_ + of matter-of-fact dailiness, in a way which is an eternal enigma to + men. + + +_Twenty-two_ + + There’s nothing like a corpse for putting everything at sixes and + sevens. + + +_Twenty-three_ + + Great grief is democratic, levelling--not downwards but upwards. + It strips away the inessential and makes brothers. It is impatient + with all the unavailable inventions which obscure the brotherhood of + mankind. + + +_Twenty-four_ + + The expression of the soul by means of the brain and body is what we + call the art of “living.” + + +_Twenty-five_ + + That Christmas has lost some of its magic is a fact that the + common-sense of the western hemisphere will not dispute. To blink the + fact is infantile. To confront it, to try to understand it, to reckon + with it, and to obviate any evil that may attach to it--this course + alone is meet for an honest man. + + +_Twenty-six_ + + It must be admitted in favour of the Five Towns that, when its + inhabitants spill milk, they do not usually sit down on the pavement + and adulterate the milk with their tears. They pass on. Such passing + on is termed callous and coldhearted in the rest of England, which + loves to sit down on pavements and weep into irretrievable milk. + + +_Twenty-seven_ + + At thirty the chances are that a man will understand better the + draughts of a chimney than his own respiratory apparatus--to name one + of the simple, obvious things; and as for understanding the working + of his own brain--what an idea! + + +_Twenty-eight_ + + Science is making it increasingly difficult to conceive matter apart + from spirit. Everything lives. Even my razor gets “tired.” + + +_Twenty-nine_ + + No book in any noble library is so interesting, so revealing, as the + catalogue of it. + + +_Thirty_ + + Love is the greatest thing in life; one may, however, question + whether it should be counted greater than life itself. + + +_Thirty-one_ + + The indispensable preparation for brain-discipline is to form the + habit of regarding one’s brain as an instrument exterior to one’s + self, like a tongue or a foot. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: + + + Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. + + Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARNOLD BENNETT CALENDAR *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so +the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. +Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this +license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and +trademark. 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