12 LITEKAEY VALUES 



assumes infinite forms, and is of infinite degrees of 

 potency. There is great literature, and there is fee- 

 ble and commonplace literature : a romance by Haw- 

 thorne and a novel by Haggard ; a poem by Tenny- 

 son and a poem by Tupper ; an essay by Emerson 

 and an essay by John Foster — all literature, all 

 touching the emotions and the imagination with 

 varying degrees of power, and yet separated by a 

 gulf. There are no degrees of excellence in gold or 

 silver, but there are all degrees of excellence in lit- 

 erature. How hard it is to tell what makes a true 

 poem, a lasting poem ! When one asks himself 

 what it is, how many things arise, how hard to nar- 

 row the list down to a few things ! Is it beauty ? 

 Then what is beauty ? One meets with beautiful 

 poems every day that he never thinks of or recurs 

 to again. It is certain that without one thing there 

 is no real poetry — genuine passion. The fire came 

 down out of heaven and consumed Elijah's offering 

 because Elijah was sincere. Plan and build your 

 poem never so deftly, mankind will not permanently 

 care for it unless it has genuine feeling. It must 

 be impassioned. 



The genus Literature includes many species, as 

 novels, poems, essays, histories, etc., but our busi- 

 ness with them all is about the same — they are 

 books that we read for their own sake. We read 

 the papers for the news, we read a work of science 

 for the facts and the conclusions, but a work of lit- 

 erature is an end in and of itself. We read it for 

 the pleasure and the stimulus it affords us, apart from 



