In like manner the feeling for literature
is quickened and nourished by intimate
acquaintance with books of beauty and
power. Such an intimacy makes the
sense of delight more keen, preserves
it against influences which tend to
deaden it, and makes the taste more
sure and trustworthy. A man who
has long had acquaintance with the
best in any department of art comes
to have, almost unconsciously to him-
self, an instinctive power of discerning
good work from bad, of recognising
on the instant the sound and true
method and style, and of feeling a
fresh and constant delight in such
work. His education comes not by
didactic, but by vital methods.

The art quality in a book is as
difficult to analyse as the feeling for
it; not because it is intangible or in-
definite, but because it is so subtly

[[68]]

p067 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p068w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p069

v?