CHAPTER I - PRELIMINARIES

Summary

There are probably but few people in the world so morose as to find no pleasure either in the exercise or the receipt of sympathy. It is the natural outcome of the state of mutual dependence upon one another which is the lot and the good fortune of human creatures; and though there is no need to extol it at the expense of self-dependence, it is not a thing society can dispense with or afford to look down upon as a mere weakness. Human creatures naturally vary to an immense extent in the character and amount of their sympathetic impulses; and apart from the mere commonplace everyday circumstances which call them into play, most people have some special lines and subjects which excite their sympathetic instincts and make them specially conscious of the delight of fellowship in tastes and interests, whether it be politics, science, literature, art, or sport. But of all types of humanity, those who are possessed with artistic dispositions are notoriously most liable to an absorbing thirst for sympathy, which is sometimes interpreted by those who are not artistic as a love of approbation or notoriety; and though it does sometimes degenerate into that unhappy weakness, its source at least is not unworthy of respect.