the man trying to talk to you, trying to impart to you some of his feelings.
An experienced student will divine the man from the book,
will understand the man by the book, as is, of course,
logically proper. But the beginner will do well to aid himself
in understanding the book by means of independent information about the man.
He will thus at once relate the book to something human,
and strengthen in his mind the essential notion of the connection
between literature and life. The earliest literature was delivered
orally direct by the artist to the recipient. In some respects
this arrangement was ideal. Changes in the constitution of society
have rendered it impossible. Nevertheless, we can still, by the exercise
of the imagination, hear mentally the accents of the artist speaking to us.
We must so exercise our imagination as to feel the man behind the book.


Some biographical information about Lamb should be acquired.
There are excellent short biographies of him by Canon Ainger
in the *Dictionary of National Biography*, in Chambers's *Encyclopædia*,
and in Chambers's *Cyclopædia of English Literature*.
If you have none of these (but you ought to have the last),
there are Mr. E. V. Lucas's exhaustive *Life* (Methuen, 7s. 6d.),
and, cheaper, Mr. Walter Jerrold's *Lamb* (Bell and Sons, 1s.);
also introductory studies prefixed to various editions of Lamb's works.
Indeed, the facilities for collecting materials for a picture of Charles Lamb
as a human being are prodigious. When you have made for yourself
such a picture, read the *Essays of Elia* by the light of it.
I will choose one of the most celebrated, *Dream Children: A Reverie*.
At this point, kindly put my book down, and read *Dream Children*.
Do not say to yourself that you will read it later, but read it now.
When you have read it, you may proceed to my next paragraph.