ABSTRACT
In the context of major movements in fin-de-siecle and early twentieth-century British literature, Strachey's question articulates the contest between, on the one hand, realism and naturalism, and, on the other, symbolism as the best method for capturing 'reality'. The common-sense materialist is immune to those occasions when, in a state of belief – regardless whether the belief corresponds to truth – 'one actually seems to experience' transcendent mysteries. One of the great difficulties in discussing the question is that it is almost impossible to express precisely what it is that one comes involuntarily to believe when one hears some sorts of music, and reads certain poetry. The common remark that everyone is born a Platonist or an Aristotelian simply means that everyone is born either believing the world ordinary or believing it odd. The common sense Aristotelian remains a common sense Aristotelian all through, with the result that he judges the novel to be nonsense.
