THE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS IN LITERATURE
by
George Henry Lewes
This eBook was prepared by Roland Cheney.
In the development of the great series of animal organisms, the NervousSystem assumes more and more of an imperial character. The rank held byany animal is determined by this character, and not at all by its bulk,its strength, or even its utility. In like manner, in the developmentof the social organism, as the life of nations becomes more complex,Thought assumes a more imperial character; and Literature, in itswidest sense, becomes a delicate index of social evolution. Barbaroussocieties show only the germs of literary life. But advancingcivilisation, bringing with it increased conquest over materialagencies, disengages the mind from the pressure of immediate wants, andthe loosened energy finds in leisure both the demand and the means of anew activity: the demand, because long unoccupied hours have to berescued from the weariness of inaction; the means, because this callupon the energies nourishes a greater ambition and furnishes a widerarena.
Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress. Itdeepens our natural sensibilities, and strengthens by exercise ourintellectual capacities. It stores up the accumulated experience of therace, connecting Past and Present into a conscious unity; and with thisstore it feeds successive generations, to be fed in turn by them. Asits importance emerges into more general recognition, it necessarilydraws after it a larger crowd of servitors, filling noble minds with anoble ambition.
There is no need in our day to be dithyrambic on the glory ofLiterature. Books have become our dearest companions, yieldingexquisite delights and inspiring lofty aims. They are our silentinstructors, our solace in sorrow, our relief in weariness. With whatenjoyment we linger over the pages of some well-loved author! Withwhat gratitude we regard every honest book! Friendships, prefound andgenerous, are formed with men long dead, and with men whom we may neversee. The lives of these men have a quite personal interest for us.Their homes become as consecrated shrines. Their little ways andfamiliar phrases become endeared to us, like the little ways andphrases of our wives and children.
It is natural that numbers who have once been thrilled with thisdelight should in turn aspire to the privilege of exciting it. Successin Literature has thus become not only the ambition of the highestminds, it has also become the ambition of minds intensely occupiedwith other means of influencing their fellow—with statesmen,warriors, and rulers. Prime ministers and emperors have striven fordistinction as poets, scholars, critics, and historians. Unsatisfiedwith the powers and privileges of rank, wealth, and their conspicuousposition in the eyes of men, they have longed also for the noblerprivilege of exercising a generous sway over the minds and hearts ofreaders. To gain this they have stolen hours from the pressure ofaffairs, and disregarded the allurements of luxurious ease, labouringsteadfastly, hoping eagerly. Nor have they mistaken the value of thereward. Success in Literature is, in truth, the blue ribbon ofnobility.
There is another aspect presented by Literature. It has become aprofession; to many a serious and elevating profession; to many more amere trade, having miserable trade-aims and trade-tricks. As in everyother profession, the ranks are thronged with incompetent aspirants,without seriousness of aim, without the faculties demanded by theirwork. They are led to waste powers which in other directions might havedone honest service, because they have failed to discriminate between