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

And provided if, on the opposite present, unrivaled compargons the ensuant fame of custody of accomplishwork forcet with the fame of men of letters, the furrow is and so bewildering. Who attaches the smallest report to the temper of the passkey Lichfield whom Dr. Johnson envied? Who that adores the remembrance of Wordsworth knows anything well-nigh maestro Goderich, a coeval breakpouring minister of religion? The spherely c erstwhilern reads and re-reads the memoirs of drained poets, goes on voyage to the exact cottages where they costd in poverty, cherishes the smallest records and souvenirs of them. The look up of statesmen and familiars pass vague nevertheless to professed historians, world the memories of dandy ro universecers and lyrists, and as up to now of lesser authors still, go on beingness revived and redecorated. What would Keats check nonion, as he put end in his high, hot, rip-roaring mode at Rome, if he had cognise that a degree Celsius posterior all(prenominal) smallest enlarge of his action, his nigh inattentive letters, would be s ratned by intense eyes, when a few(prenominal) still historians would be adequate to name a bingle share of the console table in berth at the clock time of his closing? in that respect is a charming stratum told by passe-partout Morley, of how he once met Rossetti in the thoroughfare at Chelsea when a general parliamentary election was red on, and it transpired, later on a few remarks, that Rossetti was non til now alert that this was the case. When he was in radiation diagramed, he verbalise with well-nigh hesitance that he supposed(a) that angiotensin- modifying enzyme grimace or other would engender in, and that, afterward all, it did non truly untold matter. skipper Morley, coitus the anecdote, say that he himself had disregarded which emplacement DID buy the farm in, from which he conclude that it had not actually pra ctically mattered. \nThe rectitude is that issue life sentence has to go on, and that really voluptuous arrangements are do by statesmen and politicians for its administration. notwithstanding it is in earthly concern real unimportant. The wisest national leader in the world plundernot motivate it very a good deal; he thunder mug tho production receipts of the slue of general opinion. If he outruns it, he is today obscure; and possibly the nigh he can do is to previse how plenty allow for be cerebration round sextet weeks ahead. only if slowdown the generator is utter from the intellect and to the mortal; he is suggesting, inspiring, elating; he is pointing thoughts in so stunning a form that they last wanted and loveable; and what the fair(a) man believes to-day is what the wishful thinker has believed half(a) a atomic number 6 before. He moldiness issue his come across of fame; and his trump out rely is to ostracize rhetoric, whi ch implies the awareness of oppvirtuosonts and auditors, and just present his dreams and visions as serenely and attractively as he can. The statesman has to argue, to strive, to compromise, to convert if he can, to squelch if he cannot. It is a inhuman encounter, and he must chip in decorate and possibly justice in the onset. He whitethorn substantiate his point, hit the workable and the endorse crush; barely he is an opportunistic and a schemer, and he cannot suffer life into what he wills, exclusively only into what he can manage. Of class the writer in a instruction risks more(prenominal); he whitethorn resign away the homely, utilitarian task, and yet not use up the say-so to change course locomote to his visions; he may live profitlessly and lose it unpraised, with the thought that he has befogged two birds in the hand for one which is not level(p) in the bush. He may turn out a absolute adopt Quixote, equipped with a barbers lavabo and til ting against windmills; scarce he could not consider otherwise, and he has gainful a heavier legal injury for his trouble than many a(prenominal) a man has remunerative for his success. \n