To those, however, who are desirous of knowing what gives them
pleasure but do not quite know how to set about it I have no better
advice to give than that they must take the same pains about
acquiring this difficult art as about any other, and must acquire it
in the same way--that is by attending to one thing at a time and not
being in too great a hurry. Proficiency is not to be attained here,
any more than elsewhere, by short cuts or by getting other people to
do work that no other than oneself can do. Above all things it is
necessary here, as in all other branches of study, not to think we
know a thing before we do know it--to make sure of our ground and be
quite certain that we really do like a thing before we say we do.
When you cannot decide whether you like a thing or not, nothing is
easier than to say so and to hang it up among the uncertainties. Or
when you know you do not know and are in such doubt as to see no
chance of deciding, then you may take one side or the other
provisionally and throw yourself into it. This will sometimes make
you uncomfortable, and you will feel you have taken the wrong side
and thus learn that the other was the right one. Sometimes you will
feel you have done right. Any way ere long you will know more about
it. But there must have been a secret treaty with yourself to the
effect that the decision was provisional only.
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