Book 4 (Part II)

io6 But it is too much to expect of the young Magician to practise at- tachment to the distasteful; let him first become indifferent. Let him endeavour to see facts as facts, as simply as he would see them if they were historical. Let him avoid the imaginative interpretation of any facts. Let him not put himself in the place of the people of whom the facts are related, or if he does so, let it be done only for the purpose of comprehension. Sympathy,^ indignation, praise and blame, are out of place in the observer. No one has properly considered the question as to the amount and quality of the light afforded by candles made by waxed Christians. Who has any idea which joint of the ordinary missionary is preferred by epicures? It is only a matter of conjecture that Catholics are better eating than Presbyterians. Yet these points and their kind are the only ones which have any importance at the time when the events occur. Nero did not consider what unborn posterity might think of him; it is difficult to credit cannibals with the calculation that the recital of their exploits will induce pious old ladies to replenish their larder. Very few people have ever se€?i a bull-fight. One set of people goes for excitement, another set for the perverse excitement which real or simulated horror affords. Very few people know that blood freshly ^ It is true that sometimes sympathy is necessary to comprehension.