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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
“Different classes of persons, at different times, make, of course, very various demands upon literature. Still, schol- ars, I suppose, and not only scholars, but all disinterested lov- ers of books, will always look to it, as to all other fine art, for a refuge, a sort of cloistral refuge, from a certain vulgarity in the actual world."
- Walter Pater on 'Style'
A literary man of fine sensibilities cannot bear to be always in touch with the vulgarity of the world in which he was destined to live. He longs to be away from it. If the circumstances of his life are such as force him to live near to it, he either seeks a means whereby he can remove the vile accretions piled up by ignorance or tries hard to introduce order and neatness where all had been disorderly and filthy. Moreover he keeps his mind intact and takes great delight in contemplating the beauties of nature and nothing the excellent traits in human character. In addition to these if he be so fortunate as to be endowed with the rare faculty of communi- cating his refined thoughts on life and beauty to the society in which he moves, he takes as his effective means either language or mu- sic, painting or sculpture. In representing his fine ideas in these mediums of thought, he is careful enough to avoid all sorts of vul- garity lest it should contaminate not only his mind but also the minds of those whom he addresses. If, at all, he is obliged to touch upon an aspect of vulgarity in order to bring into strong relief either the beauty of nature or human character in the delineation of which he is engaged, he touches only so much of it as is needed for his pur- pose. In short, a man of refined sense and productive imagination idealizes all that his experience brings into his mind, gives to them a form which is not wholly at variance with what they have in the
