Many people pursue a regular and uninterrupted course of idleness in the evenings because they think that there is no alternative to idleness but the study of literature;and they do not happen to have a taste for literature.This is a great mistake.
Of course it is impossible,or at any rate very difficult,properly to study anything whatever without the aid of printed books.But if you desire to understand the deeper depths of bridge or of boat-sailing you would not be deterred by your lack of interest in literature from reading the best books on bridge or boat-sailing.We must,therefore,distinguish between literature,and books treating of subjects not literary.I shall come to literature in due course.
Let me now remark to those who have never read Meredith,and who are capable of being unmoved by a discussion as to whether Mr.Stephen Phillips is or is not a true poet,that they are perfectly within their rights.
It is not a crime not to love literature.It is not a sign of imbecility.The mandarins of literature will order out to instant execution the unfortunate individual who does not comprehend,say,the influence of Wordsworth on Tennyson.But that is only their impudence.Where would they be,I wonder,if requested to explain the influences that went to make Tschaikowsky's "Pathetic Symphony"?
There are enormous fields of knowledge quite outside literature which will yield magnificent results to cultivators.For example (since I have just mentioned the most popular piece of high-class music in England to-day),I am reminded that the Promenade Concerts begin in August.
You go to them.You smoke your cigar or cigarette (and I regret to say that you strike your matches during the soft bars of the "Lohengrin"overture),and you enjoy the music.But you say you cannot play the piano or the fiddle,or even the banjo;that you know nothing of music.