beware of rating his own possibilities too high. In looking back at
one's own life, in trying to trace what are the things that have
had a deep and permanent influence on one's character, how rarely
is it possible to point to a particular book, and say, "That book
gave me the message I most needed, made me take the right turn,
gave me the requisite bias, the momentous impulse"? We tend to want
to do things on too large a scale, to affect great masses of
people, to influence numerous hearts. An author should be more than
content if he finds he has made a difference to a handful of
people, or given innocent pleasure to a small company. Only to
those whose heart is high, whose patience is inexhaustible, whose
vigour is great, whose emotion is passionate, is it given to make a
deep mark upon the age; and there is needed too the magical charm
of personality, overflowing in "thoughts that breathe and words
that burn." But we can all take a hand in the great game; and if
the leading parts are denied us, if we are told off to sit among a
row of supers, drinking and whispering on a bench, while the great
characters soliloquize, let us be sure that we drain our empty cup
with zest, and do our whispering with intentness; not striving to
divert attention to ourselves, but contributing with all our might
to the naturalness, the effectiveness of the scene.






XI

THE CRITICISM OF OTHERS