[00:06.40]I will tell you what literature is!
[00:08.89]No—I only wish I could. But I can’t.
[00:13.18]Gleams can be thrown on the secret, inklings given, but no more.
[00:18.00]I will try to give you an inkling.
[00:20.94]And, to do so, I will take you back into your history, or forward onto it.
[00:26.96]That evening when you went for a walk with your faithful friend,
[00:31.11]the friend from whom you hid nothing—or almost nothing…!
[00:34.71]You were, in truth,
[00:36.80]somewhat inclined to hide from him the particular matter
[00:40.07]which monopolized your mind that evening,
[00:42.38]but somehow you contrived to get on to it,
[00:45.76]drawn by an overpowering fascination.
[00:48.73]And as your friend was sympathetic and discreet,
[00:52.00]and flattered you by a respectful curiosity,
[00:55.27]you proceeded further and further into the said matter,
[00:58.79]growing more and more confidential,
[01:01.30]until at last you cried out,
[01:03.60]in a terrific whisper: “My boy, she is simply miraculous!”
[01:08.41]At that moment you were in the domain of literature.
[01:12.45]Let me explain.
[01:14.32]Of course, in the ordinary acceptation of the word,
[01:18.25]she was not miraculous.
[01:20.10]She was just a girl.
[01:21.74]If a girl is to be called a miracle,
[01:24.38]then you might call pretty nearly everything a miracle…
[01:27.66]That is just it: you might.
[01:30.38]You can. You ought.
[01:32.69]Amid all the miracles of the universe you had just wakened to one.
[01:37.49]You were full of your discovery.
[01:40.25]You were under a divine impulsion to impart that discovery.
[01:44.29]You were drawn towards the whole of the rest of the human race.
[01:48.88]Mark the effect of your mood and utterance on your faithful friend.
[01:53.25]He knew that she was not a miracle.
[01:56.10]But you, by the force and sincerity of your own vision of her,
[02:00.91]and by the fervor of your desire to make him participate in your vision,
[02:05.73]did for a quite long time cause him to feel
[02:09.66]that he had been blind to the miracle of that girl!
[02:13.15]You were producing literature.
[02:16.01]You were alive.
[02:17.86]Your eyes were unlidded, your ears were unstopped,
[02:21.79]to some part of the beauty and the strangeness of the world;
[02:25.86]and a strong instinct within you forced you to tell someone.
[02:30.00]It was not enough for you that you saw and heard.
[02:33.72]Others had to see and hear.
[02:36.41]Other had to be wakened up.
[02:38.94]And they were: It is quite possible—
[02:42.09]I am not quite sure—
[02:44.00]that your faithful friend the very next day,
[02:47.06]or the next month, looked at some other girl,
[02:50.79]and suddenly saw that she, too, was miraculous!
[02:54.72]The influence of literature!
