PIIESIDENTUL ADDRESS. 923 



Literature. 



Literature differs from most kiuds of useful knowledge in having an immediate 

 value. Like beautiful scenery, health, liberty, friendship, and other felicities of 

 life, it is good in itself, apart from the advantages which it brings. Nevertheless, 

 literature is not satisfied with delighting. Like architecture, it aims at utility as 

 well as beauty, and employs its power of delighting to instruct and guide. 



The benefits which we receive from literature are comparable with those which 

 we receive from good society. We are expected to enjoy and appreciate; we are 

 not to be for ever asking : ' What have I got that I can carry away ? ' Literature 

 may be more than good society ; it may compare with the intimate talk on grave 

 subjects of a wise and high-minded friend. Unfortunately those whose othce it is 

 to introduce us to literature often treat it as if it were only a particular sort of 

 useful knowledge. They occupy our attention so completely with grammar, 

 metre, etymology, and historical allusions that we have no leisure to enjoy and 

 a])preciate. Dr. Bain ' tells us that we need to be indoctrinated in points of style 

 before we begin to read on our own account, and discourages the reading of entire 

 plays of Shakespeare because we come across long passages which yield no marked 

 examples of either grammar or rhetoric. 



I have little fear that the scientific age which is now upon us will be perma- 

 nently hurtful to literature. No new Lucretius, it may be, will write on the 

 Universe, no new Milton on the Creation and the Fall. But contemplative and 

 lyrical poetry will survive all changes in our philosophy. The higher criticism, 

 which is the study of life as well as of letters, will survive too. One literary art, 

 the art of rhetoric, may be weakened and lost when the scientific spirit becomes 

 predominant — that sort of rhetoric, I mean, which may be fitly described as 

 insincere eloquence. Rhetoric seeks above all to persuade, and in a completely 

 scientific age men will only allow themselves to be persuaded by force of reason. 

 Even in our imperfectly scientific age those men gain most by speech who have 

 something important to say, who say no moreT than they know, and who use all 

 possible plainness. 



It will be enough for my present purpose if we can agree that literature has 

 an aim and purpose of its own, and must not be treated simply as a branch of 

 useful knowledge. Literature and science, for instance, are incommensurable. 



The Necessity of Choosing. 



It is an intellectual luxury to run over the kinds of useful knowledge that we 

 should like to possess. Among them come languages, ancient and modern, some 

 giving access to high literature, some yielding historical or scientific information, 

 some acquainting us with communities or modes of thought very unlike our own. 

 Then come a multitude of sciences, which perhaps show the engineer how to build 

 railway bridges, or tell the navigator how to cross the Atlantic, or help us to im- 

 prove our health and lengthen our lives. 1 barely mention history, geography, 

 and innumerable practical arts. We seem to be led into a well-filled treasury, and 

 invited to say what we will have. But one unpleasant condition is laid dowu ; 

 we may choose what we please, but we must pay for it. A new study generally 

 means outlay of money, and always means outlay of time. We soon find ourselves 

 forced to behave like the man whose wife has tempted him into a fine London 

 shop ; like him, we begin to ask : ' How much can I afford to spend here ? ' 



Every headmaster and headmistress is occupied with the eternal question how 

 to make room for all the things that are demanded of the school. Theorisers, who 

 have no responsibility for the time-table, insist from time to time upon new addi- 

 tions, and are happy if they can only express their own opinions with an emphasis 

 which satisfies their sense of justice. It is my opinion that far too much has 

 already been conceded to demands which, reasonable when taken separately, are 

 unreasonable when taken together. I have known the time-table of a girls' school 

 overloaded to such a point that in one form chemistry and English literature got 



' Oti Teachinij EmjUsh, p. 18, 



