themes are as
varied and as numerous as the objects upon which the mind can fasten
and about which the imagination can play. But while its forms and
products are almost without number, this magnificent growth has, in
the last analysis, a single root, and in these brief chapters the
endeavour has been made, very inadequately, to bring the mind to this
deep and hidden unity of life and art. Information, instruction,
delight, flow in a thousand rivulets from as many books, but there is
a spring of life which feeds all these separate streams. From that
unseen source flows the vitality which has given power and freshness
to a host of noble works; from that source vitality also flows into
every mind open to its incoming. A rich intellectual life is
characterised not so much by profusion of ideas as by the application
of a few formative ideas to life; not so much by multiplicity of
detached thoughts as by the habit of thinking. The genius of Carlyle
is evidenced not by prodigal growth of ideas, but by an impressive
interpretation of life through the application to all its phenomena of
a few ideas of great depth and range. And this is true of all the
great writers who have given us fresh views of life from some central
and commanding height rather than a succession of glimpses or outlooks
from a great number of points. The closer the approach to the central
force behind any course of development, the fewer in number are the
elements involved. The rootage of literature in the spiritual nature
and experience of the race is the fundamental fact not only in the
history of this rich and splendid art, but in its relation to culture.
From this rootage flows the vitality which imparts immortality to its
noblest products, and which supplies an educational element unrivalled
in its enriching and enlarging quality.

End of Project Gutenberg's Books and Culture, by Hamilton Wright Mabie

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