Now this spirit in which a
subject is regarded, important in all kinds of literary work,
becomes all-important in works of fiction, meditation, or
rhapsody; for there it not only colours but itself chooses
the facts; not only modifies but shapes the work. And hence,
over the far larger proportion of the field of literature,
the health or disease of the writer's mind or momentary
humour forms not only the leading feature of his work, but
is, at bottom, the only thing he can communicate to others.
In all works of art, widely speaking, it is first of all the
author's attitude that is narrated, though in the attitude
there be implied a whole experience and a theory of life. An
author who has begged the question and reposes in some narrow
faith cannot, if he would, express the whole or even many of
the sides of this various existence; for, his own life being
maim, some of them are not admitted in his theory, and were
only dimly and unwillingly recognised in his experience.
Hence the smallness, the triteness, and the inhumanity in
works of merely sectarian religion; and hence we find equal
although unsimilar limitation in works inspired by the spirit
of the flesh or the despicable taste for high society. So
that the first duty of any man who is to write is
intellectual. Designedly or not, he has so far set himself
up for a leader of the minds of men; and he must see that his
own mind is kept supple, charitable, and bright.
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