136 LITERARY VALUES 



tiie result is a mixed product, a cross between litera- 

 ture and something else, which may be very vigorous 

 and serviceable, but which cannot give the kind of 

 satisfaction that is imparted by a pure artistic crea- 

 tion. A great poem or work of art does not speak 

 to any special and passing condition, mental or spir- 

 itual ; its ministrations are neither those of meat nor 

 those of medicine ; it does not subserve any private 

 or secondary ends, even the saving of our souls. 

 The books that seem written for us are quite certain 

 to lose in interest to the next generation. A great 

 poem heals, not as the doctor heals, but as nature 

 does, by bringing the conditions of health. It con- 

 soles, not as the priest consoles, but as love and life 

 themselves do. It does not offer a special good, but 

 a general benefaction. 



I once heard Emerson quote with approval Shake- 

 speare's saying, " Head what you most affect ;" but no 

 doubt a broad culture demands wide reading, and that 

 we be on our guard against our particular predilec- 

 tions, because such predilections may lead us into nar- 

 row channels. Do the devotees of Browning, those 

 who cry Browning, Browning, and Browning only, 

 do him the highest honor ? Do the disciples of 

 Whitman, who would make a cult of him, live in 

 the spirit of the whole, as Whitman himself tried to 

 live ? — Whitman, who said that there may be any 

 number of Supremes, and that the chief lesson to be 

 learned under the master is how to destroy him ? 

 Our love for an author must not suggest the fondness 

 of the epicure for a special dish, or partake of the 



