The familiar companionship
of the great Idealists is one of the greatest resources against the
paralysis of this faith and the decay of this faculty.
Chapter XXIV.
Retrospect.
The books of four great writers have been used almost exclusively by
way of illustration throughout this discussion of the relation of
books to culture. This limited selection may have seemed at times too
narrow and rigid; it may have conveyed an impression of insensibility
to the vast range and the great variety of literary forms and
products, and of indifference to contemporary writing. It needs to be
said, therefore, that the constant reference to Homer, Dante,
Shakespeare, and Goethe has been made for the sake of clearness and
force of illustration, and not, in any sense, as applying an exclusive
principle of selection. The books of life are to be found in every
language, and are the product of almost every age; and no one attains
genuine culture who does not, through them, make himself familiar with
the life of each successive generation. To be ignorant of the thought
and art of one's time involves a narrowness of intelligence which is
inconsistent with the maturity of taste and ripeness of nature which
have been emphasised in these chapters as the highest and finest
fruits of culture.
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