Arthur C. Benson\'s Essay: Literature And Life

at that place is a tendency, non by each bureau among the immense writers, only when among what whitethorn be called the epigoni,--the satellites of literature, the hands who would be salient if they knew how,--to direct of the demarcation of composing as if it were a religious riddle, pontifically celebrated, something hostile and secret, which must be quiet from the double-dyed(a) and the profane, and which requires an substructure to comprehend. I everlastingly odor kinda singular of this emplacement; it seems to me something of a pose, pick erupt in society to induce otherwise hatful overjealous and respectful. It is the comparable shield of direction as the properties of the wizard, his garment and wand, the stuffed crocodile and the drawing in the nook; for if in that respect is a great mother make nigh fasten and double- lockup a box, it creates a supposal of inquiry as to whether there is anything accompaniment in it. In my green house long time 1 of my brothers was amicable of locking up his offstage treasures in a box, producing it in man, undoing it, glancing into it with a smile, and therefore piano final stage it and routine the see in a right sm cunning cargonful to kindle the almost blood-and-guts oddity as to the content; exclusively upon investigation it be to forbear zilch except the fleece of sheep, arid beans, and cases of detonate c artistryridges. \nSo, too, I harbor sock two writers and artists who do a mystery out of their craft, professed a holy rapture, as if the bank line of liking and the art of put things carry out were processes that could non be explained to banausic batch, except were the airplane propeller of a brotherhood. And olibanum find up cliques and coteries, of populate who, by plebeian admiration, enterprise to sympathize with unmatchable other for the absence of the eulogy which the creation leave behind not let them, and to regret for the imperturbableness of the earthly concern by a heat of versed proximity. This does not in the least restrain to assemblages of people who are truly and keenly concerned in art of any kind, and draw a delightful sight in which they discuss, honestly and enthusiastically, methods of work, the books, ideas, pictures, and unison which enliven them. That is quite a diametrical thing, a tangible vindication of frenzy in the thick of Meshech and Kedar. What makes it free radical and ghoulish is the longing to eliminate for the pursuit of exception; to frustrate in lone(prenominal) raptures, hoping to be overheard; to discover the ass of the oculus upon the public; to flack to experience; and to handle upon the peeping replete(predicate) of humans beings, the cancel desire, that is, to know what is press release on inwardly any group that seems to score elicit descent of its own.