Excerpt from Canadian Bookman, Vol. 1: With Which Is Incorporated the Canadian Bookseller and Library Journal; April 1, 1915 Another keynote struck by the author in this most entertaining chapter, is his insistence upon liberty. A fixed creed, whether it be a creed of optimism, pessimism, realism, or romanticism, is a positive nuisance to an artist. In this most people will concur. The world is getting away, more and more, from the cramping, enervating influence Of fixed creeds. Joseph Conrad, all of whose novels have the unmistakable air of reality, declares that the novelist should have no programme of any kind and no set rules. In a memorable phrase he cries, 'liberty of the imagination should be the most precious posses sion of a novelist.' Optimism may be an insult to the sufferings of humanity, but, says Mr. Con rad, pessimism is intellectual arrogance. He will have it that while the ultimate meaning Of life if there be one - is hidden from us, at all events this is a spectacular universe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.