LITERAEY VALUES 21 



and this cannot be taught, it must be felt and ex- 

 perienced. 



The class in literature studies an author's sen- 

 tence - structure and paragraphing, and doubtless 

 could tell the author more about it than he knows 

 himself. The probabilities are that he never 

 thought a moment about his sentence-structure or 

 his paragraphing. He has thought only of his sub- 

 ject-matter and how to express himself clearly and 

 forcibly ; the structure of his sentences takes care 

 of itself. From every art certain rules and princi- 

 ples may he deduced, but the intelligent apprehen- 

 sion of those rules and principles no more leads to 

 mastery in that art, or even helps to mastery in it, 

 than a knowledge of the anatomy and the vital 

 processes of the stomach helps a man to digest his 

 dinner, or than the knowledge of the gunsmith 

 helps make a good marksman. In other words the 

 science of any art is of little use to him who would 

 practice that art. To be a fiddler you must fiddle 

 and see others fiddle ; to be a painter you must paint 

 and study the painting of others ; to be a writer 

 you must write and familiarize yourself with the 

 works of the best authors. Studying an author 

 from the outside by bringing the light of rhetoric to 

 bear upon him is of little profit. We must get in- 

 side of him, and we can only get inside of him 

 through sympathy and appreciation. There is only 

 one way to teach literature, only one vital way, and 

 that is by reading it. The laboratory way may 

 give one the dry bones of the subject, but not the 



