and Tolstoi, is not at the command
of all men; and yet all men may
share in it and be enlarged by it.
This is one of the most important
services which literature renders to its
lover: it makes him a companion of
the most interesting personalities in
their most significant moments; it
enables him to break the bars of in-
dividual experience and escape into
the wider and richer life of the race.
Within the compass of a very small
room, on a very few shelves, the real
story of man in this world may be
collected in the books of life in which
it is written; and the solitary reader,
whose personal contacts with men and
events are few and lacking in distinc-
tion and interest, may enter, through
his books, into the most thrilling life
of the race in some of its most signifi-
cant moments.

[[171]]

p170 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p171w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p172

v?