EDUCATION
and Alyosha Karamazov, Juliet and Lady Chatterley are
instance of fictional heroes and heroines upon whom, at
one time or another, great numbers of human beings have
patterned themselves. In all cases, whether mythical,
historical or fictional, some measure of literary art is
necessary; if the story is told inadequately, the pupil will
remain unimpressed, will feel no desire to imitate the
model set before him. Hence the importance, even in
ethical instruction, of good art. Moreover, every genera-
tion must produce its stock of imitable models, described
in terms of an art which is not merely good, but also
up-to-date. Old good art can never have the same appeal
as new good art; for most people, indeed, it cannot rival
with new bad art. More people bovarize themselves upon
the models provided by the pulp magazines than upon those
provided by Shakespeare. There are two reasons for this.
The first is that, though crude and incompetent, the pulp
magazines deal with contemporary characters, while Shake-
speare, though incomparable in his power to cput things
across,* is more than three hundred years out of date;
the second must be sought in the fact that the moral effort
required to imitate Shakespeare's heroes, and even his
villains, is far greater than that which is needed to imitate
the personages of pulp-magazine fiction. Pulp-magazine
stories are transcriptions of the commonest and easiest day-
dreams—dreams of sexual titiUation, of financial success,
of luxury, of social recognition. Shakespeare's personages
are on a larger scale. They embody the hardly realizable,
extravagant day-dreams of paranoiacs—of men who dream
of being lovers uniquely faithful, proud saviours of their
country uniquely disinterested and uniquely adored, villains
uniquely vengeful and malignant. In this context it is worth
remarking that except for the Duke in Measure for Measure
—and he is scarcely a human being, only a symbol—
Shakespeare gives no picture of a non-attached human
207