ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the motives that may lead a man to choose, from among the many exciting things there are to do in the world, the work of literary criticism. Every scrap of real information is like a fresh entry on a navigator's chart; and each new hypothesis that has any covering power becomes an added instrument in his explorations. An exposition, a denouement, a catastrophe, even a character, are merely arbitrary ways we have of cutting up this web of thoughts and feelings into parts for the purpose of teaching people how to read, and of comparing our readings with one another. Protestantism hardly arose smoothly and, for that matter, the original spread of Christianity must have brought conflict into a great many hearts. Psychology is beginning to supply him with better means for comparing the situations and outlooks of humanity than his own vacillating preferences and intuitions could provide.
