The fourth method is that of interesting (that is, absorbing
the mind) in connection with works of art. The interest
may lie in an intricate plot a method till quite recently
much employed in English novels and French plays, but
now going out of fashion and being replaced by authenticity,
i.e. by detailed description of some historical period or some
branch of contemporary life. For example, in a novel,
interesting-ness may consist in a description of Egyptian or
Eoman life, the life of miners, or that of the clerks in a
large shop. The reader becomes interested and mistakes
this interest for an artistic impression. The interest may
also depend on the very method of expression; a kind of
interest that has now come much into use. Both verse and
prose, as well as pictures, plays, and music, are constructed
. so that they must be guessed like riddles, and this process
of guessing again affords pleasure and gives a semblance of
the feeling received from art.