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There is a second feature of the influences of literature, good literature, on emotional life which may have some special value for our time.

In B. M. Spinley's portrayal of the underprivileged and undereducated youth of London, a salient finding was the inability to postpone gratification, a need to satisfy impulses immediately without the pleasure of anticipation or of savoring the experience.

Perhaps it is only an analogy, but one of the most obvious differences between cheap fiction and fiction of an enduring quality is the development of a theme or story with leisure and anticipation.

Anyone who has watched children develop a taste for literature will understand what I mean.

It is at least possible that the capacity to postpone gratification is developed as well as expressed in a continuous and guided exposure to great literature.