eneral, so
here he is free and outspoken on the peculiar failings of authors. At
the same time he gives them good advice. He is particularly happy in
recommending restraint in regard to reading the works of others, and
the cultivation of independent thought; and herein he recalls a saying
attributed to Hobbes, who was not less distinguished as a writer than
as a philosopher, to the effect that "_if he had read as much as other
men, he should have been as ignorant as they_."

Schopenhauer also utters a warning, which we shall do well to take to
heart in these days, against mingling the pursuit of literature with
vulgar aims. If we follow him here, we shall carefully distinguish
between literature as an object of life and literature as a means of
living, between the real love of truth and beauty, and that detestable
false love which looks to the price it will fetch in the market. I am
not referring to those who, while they follow a useful and honorable
calling in bringing literature before the public, are content to be
known as men of business. If, by the help of some second witch
of Endor, we could raise the ghost of Schopenhauer, it would be
interesting to hear his opinion of a certain kind of literary
enterprise which has come into vogue since his day, and now receives
an amount of attention very much beyond its due. We may hazard a guess
at the direction his opinion would take. He would doubtless show us
how this enterprise, which is carried on by self-styled _literary
men_, ends by making literature into a form of merchandise, and
treating it as though it were so much goods to be bought and sold at a
profit, and most likely to produce quick returns if the maker's name
is well known. Nor would it be the ghost of the real Schopenhauer
unless we heard a vigorous denunciation of men who claim a connection
with literature by a servile flattery of successful living
authors--the dead cannot be made to pay--in the hope of appearing to
advantage in their reflected light and turning that advantage into
money.

In order to present the contents of this book in a convenient form, I
have not scrupled to make an arrangement with the chapters somewhat
different from that which exists in the original; so that two or more
subjects which are there dealt with successively in one and the same
chapter, here stand by themselves. In consequence of this, some of
the titles of the sections are not to be found in the original. I may
state,