py. That is his
office. Let him discharge it.

I recognise in this connection the corresponding truth of what Sydney
Smith makes his Peter Plymley say about the private virtues of Mr.
Perceval, the Prime Minister:

'You spend a great deal of ink about the character of the present
Prime Minister. Grant all that you write--I say, I fear that he will
ruin Ireland, and pursue a line of policy destructive to the true
interests of his country; and then you tell me that he is faithful to
Mrs. Perceval, and kind to the Master Percevals. I should prefer that
he whipped his boys and saved his country.'

We should never confuse functions or apply wrong tests. What can books
do for us? Dr. Johnson, the least pedantic of men, put the whole matter
into a nutshell (a cocoanut shell, if you will--Heaven forbid that I
should seek to compress the great Doctor within any narrower limits than
my metaphor requires!), when he wrote that a book should teach us either
to enjoy life or endure it. 'Give us enjoyment!' 'Teach us endurance!'
Hearken to the ceaseless demand and the perpetual prayer of an ever
unsatisfied and always suffering humanity!

How is a book to answer the ceaseless demand?

Self-forgetfulness is of the essence of enjoyment, and the author who
would confer pleasure must possess the art, or know the trick, of
destroying for the time the reader's own personality. Undoubtedly the
easiest way of doing this is by the creation of a host of rival
personalities--hence the number and the popularity of novels. Whenever a
novelist fails his book is said to flag; that is, the reader suddenly (as
in skating) comes bump down upon his own personality, and curses the
unskilful author. No lack of characters and continual motion is the
easiest recipe for a novel, which, like a beggar, should always be kept
'moving on.' Nobody knew this better than Fielding, whose novels, like
most good ones, are full of inns.

When those who are addicted to what is called 'improving reading' inquire
of you petulantly why you cannot find change of company and scene in
books of travel, you should answer cautiously that when books of travel
are full of inns, atmosphere, and motion, they are as good as any novel;
nor is there any reason in the nature of things why they should not
always be so, though experience proves the contrary.

The truth or falsehood of a book is immaterial. George Borrow's _Bible
in Spain_ is, I suppos