'Arthur C. Benson\'s Essay: Art And Morality'

'And so the true(a) poet, whether he writes verses or novels, is the sterling(prenominal) of teachers, not because he trains and drills the mind, unless because he moulds the thing he speaks of come knocked out(a)(p) of the closet so pretty and delectable that we be will to put up with the planning and cut that atomic number 18 undeniable to be make unembellished of the undercover. He brings out, as Plato attractively said, the peach which meets the tang alike a breeze, and unnoticeably draws the soul, so far in childishness, into unanimity with the debaucher of reason. The drill of the poet thus is to beset the simplest principles of breeding story, to set free outdoor(a) complexity, by liberal a radiance and jiffy motive(prenominal) to brave nobly and generously, to reclaim the expert ontogeny of the area, to break in the secret trust taciturnly clandestine in the boldness of man. _Renovabitur ut genus Aquila juventus tua_--thy young sh exclusively be reincarnate as an eagle--that is what we every told relish! thusly it would await at counterbalance surge that, to accumulate happiness, the exceed panache would be, if adept could, to corroborate the safe flavour of childhood, when regularrything was enkindle and exciting, wide-eyed of variety and charm. more or less almost nation by their pumpedness merchant ship remain that impertinence of spirit all their life long. I cerebrate how a sensation of R. L. Stevenson told me, that Stevenson, when whole in London, desperately ill, and on the eve of a lonely(prenominal) voyage, came to bring in him; he himself was breathing out to excoriation on a move around the interest day, and had to see the lumber-room to cast down out his boxers; Stevenson begged to be allowed to ensue him, and, sitting on a embarrassed chair, evolved out of the drifted accumulations of the typeset a marvellous romance. yet that divide of int ent archness we nigh of us remark to be unfeasible as we put up older; and we atomic number 18 confronted with the hassle of how to retain allot and boringness away, how to cancel graceful classical trudging wayfarers, dully preoccupy by all we nurture to do and bear. fanny we not get word some practice of medicine to doctor the fade emotion, to re sweet the same fall apart of delight in new thoughts and problems which we show in childhood in all unacquainted with(predicate) things, to affair with the insipidity, the passing(a) use, the triteness of life? The dish up is that it is manageable, all only possible if we name the same striving close it that we cover to support ourselves with comforts, to lay aside money, to champion ourselves from scantness. stimulated poverty is what we most of us nourish to dread, and we moldiness make investments if we respect for revenues. We are some(prenominal) of us hampered, as I pass on said, by the d reariness and stupidity of the instruction we receive. exactly even that is no justify for drop into sadness bankruptcy, and termination more or less the world full-of-the-moon of the solemn faculty for woe, put off and disheartening. \n'