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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
63
Lay
aside
the
"literary
organ,"
which
appears
once
a
week,
and
take
up
the
newspaper,
which
comes
forth
every
day,
morning
and
evening.
Here
you
get
the
true
proportion
of
things.
Read
your
daily
news-sheet--that
which
costs
threepence
or
that
which
costs
a
halfpenny--and
muse
upon
the
impression
it
leaves.
It
may
be
that
a
few
books
are
"noticed";
granting
that
the
"notice"
is
in
any
way
noticeable,
compare
the
space
it
occupies
with
that
devoted
to
the
material
interests
of
life:
you
have
a
gauge
of
the
real
importance
of
intellectual
endeavour
to
the
people
at
large.
No,
the
public
which
reads,
in
any
sense
of
the
word
worth
considering,
is
very,
very
small;
the
public
which
would
feel
no
lack
if
all
book-printing
ceased
to-morrow,
is
enormous.
These
announcements
of
learned
works
which
strike
one
as
so
encouraging,
are
addressed,
as
a
matter
of
fact,
to
a
few
thousand
persons,
scattered
all
over
the
English-
speaking
world.
Many
of
the
most
valuable
books
slowly
achieve
the
sale
of
a
few
hundred
copies.
Gather
from
all
the
ends
of
the
British
Empire
the
men
and
women
who
purchase
grave
literature
as
a
matter
of
course,
who
habitually
seek
it
in
public
libraries,
in
short
who
regard
it
as
a
necessity
of
life,
and
I
am
much
mistaken
if
they
could
not
comfortably
assemble
in
the
Albert
Hall.
But
even
granting
this,
is
it
not
an
obvious
fact
that
our
age
tends
to
the
civilized
habit
of
mind,
as
displayed
in
a
love
for
intellectual
things?
Was
there
ever
a
time
which
saw
the
literature
of
knowledge
and
of
the
emotions
so
widely
distributed?
Does
not
the
minority
of
the
truly
intelligent
exercise
a
vast
and
profound
influence?
Does
it
not
in
truth
lead
the
way,
however
slowly
and
irregularly
the
multitude
may
follow?
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