the said man believes--not by reason, but by faith. And he too repeats
that Shakespeare was a great artist, and he buys the complete works
of Shakespeare and puts them on his shelves, and he goes to see
the marvellous stage-effects which accompany *King Lear* or *Hamlet*,
and comes back religiously convinced that Shakespeare was a great artist.
All because the passionate few could not keep their admiration
of Shakespeare to themselves. This is not cynicism; but truth.
And it is important that those who wish to form their literary taste
should grasp it.


What causes the passionate few to make such a fuss about literature?
There can be only one reply. They find a keen and lasting pleasure
in literature. They enjoy literature as some men enjoy beer.
The recurrence of this pleasure naturally keeps their interest in literature
very much alive. They are for ever making new researches,
for ever practising on themselves. They learn to understand themselves.
They learn to know what they want. Their taste becomes surer and surer
as their experience lengthens. They do not enjoy to-day
what will seem tedious to them to-morrow. When they find a book tedious,
no amount of popular clatter will persuade them that it is pleasurable;
and when they find it pleasurable no chill silence of the street-crowds
will affect their conviction that the book is good and permanent.
They have faith in themselves. What are the qualities in a book
which give keen and lasting pleasure to the passionate few?
This is a question so difficult that it has never yet
been completely answered. You may talk lightly about truth, insight,
knowledge, wisdom, humour, and beauty. But these comfortable words do not
really carry you very far, for each of them has to be defined,
especially the first and last. It is all very well for Keats