e proving dank and depressing; of another, cheap and vulgar;
of a third, epileptically sensual; of a fourth, sourly ascetic. In
literature as in conduct, you can never hope to do exactly right. All
you can do is to make as sure as possible; and for that there is but one
rule. Nothing should be done in a hurry that can be done slowly. It is
no use to write a book and put it by for nine or even ninety years; for
in the writing you will have partly convinced yourself; the delay must
precede any beginning; and if you meditate a work of art, you should
first long roll the subject under the tongue to make sure you like the
flavour, before you brew a volume that shall taste of it from end to
end; or if you propose to enter on the field of controversy, you should
first have thought upon the question under all conditions, in health as
well as in sickness, in sorrow as well as in joy. It is this nearness of
examination necessary for any true and kind writing, that makes the
practice of the art a prolonged and noble education for the writer.

There is plenty to do, plenty to say, or to say over again, in the
meantime. Any literary work which conveys faithful facts or pleasing
impressions is a service to the public. It is even a service to be
thankfully proud of having rendered. The slightest novels are a blessing
to those in distress, not chloroform itself a greater. Our fine old
sea-captain's life was justified when Carlyle soothed his mind with "The
King's Own" or "Newton Forster." To please is to serve; and so far from
its being difficult to instruct while you amuse, it is difficult to do
the one thoroughly without the other. Some part of the writer or his
life will crop out in even a vapid book; and to read a novel that was
conceived with any force is to multiply experience and to exercise the
sympathies. Every article, every piece of verse, every essay, every
_entrefilet_, is destined to pass, however swiftly, through the minds of
some portion of the public, and to colour, however transiently, their
thoughts. When any subject falls to be discussed, some scribbler on a
paper has the invaluable opportunity of beginning its discussion in a
dignified and human spirit; and if there were enough who did so in our
public press neither the public nor the parliament would find it in
their minds to drop to meaner thoughts. The writer has the chance to
stumble, by the way, on something pleasing, something interesting,
something encouragin