mood he had told us how he read
these books; for never, surely, were
books read with greater insight and
with more complete absorption.
Indeed, the fruits of this reading
were so rich and ripe that the books
from which their juices came seem
but dry husks and shells in compar-
ison. The reader drained the writer
dry of every particle of suggestive-
ness, and then recreated the material
in new and imperishable forms. The
process of reproduction was individ-
ual, and is not to be shared by
others; it was the expression of that
rare and inexplicable personal energy
which we call genius; but the process
of absorption may be shared by all
who care to submit to the discipline
which it involves. It is clear that
Shakespeare read in such a way as to
possess what he read; he not only

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