"
The Magazine Lion laughed. "Silly little thing!" he said, with a
fascinating tone of virile condescension. "An author's business is
to write books, not to read them. If he reads, he grows intelligent
and thoughtful and careful about his work. Those old books spoil
him for the modern market. But if he just goes ahead and writes
whatever comes into his head, he can do it with a bang, and everybody
sits up and pays attention. That's the only way to be original.
See?"
"Excuse me," broke in the Academic Lion, "but you go too far,
brother. Authors should be encouraged to read, but only under
critical guidance and professorial direction. Otherwise they will
not be able to classify the books, and tabulate their writers, and
know which ones to admire and praise. How can you expect a mere
author to comprehend the faulty method of Shakespeare, or the ethical
commonplaceness of Dickens and Thackeray, or the vital Ibsenism of
Bernard Shaw and the other near-Ibsens, without assistance?"
"But the other people," asked Diana, "what is going to happen to
them if you let them go in free and browse among the books?"
"They are less important," answered the Academic Lion.
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