The poems themselves
assume the properties of flesh and blood." (15)
But men have not merely been stimulated to undertake special
literary pursuits by the perusal of particular books; they
have been also stimulated by them to enter upon particular
lines of action in the serious business of life. Thus Henry
Martyn was powerfully influenced to enter upon his heroic career
as a missionary by perusing the Lives of Henry Brainerd and
Dr. Carey, who had opened up the furrows in which he went
forth to sow the seed.
Bentham has described the extraordinary influence which the
perusal of 'Telemachus' exercised upon his mind in boyhood.
"Another book," said he, "and of far higher character (than a
collection of Fairy Tales, to which he refers), was placed in my
hands. It was 'Telemachus.' In my own imagination, and at the
age of six or seven, I identified my own personality with that of
the hero, who seemed to me a model of perfect virtue; and in my
walk of life, whatever it may come to be, why (said I to myself
every now and then)--why should not I be a Telemachus? .... That
romance may be regarded as THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF MY WHOLE
CHARACTER--the starting-post from whence my career of life
commenced. The first dawning in my mind of the 'Principles of
Utility' may, I think, be traced to it." (16)
Cobbett's first favourite, because his only book, which he bought
for threepence, was Swift's 'Tale of a Tub,' the repeated perusal
of which had, doubtless, much to do with the formation of his
pithy, straightforward, and hard-hitting style of writing.
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