Eliot on 'reading'

I wish I had time to reflect on T. S. Eliot's article 'Religion and Literature,' in Selected Prose of T. S. Eliot (Harcourt, 1975), but I do not. Therefore, I'll simply post a block quote that coincides with the conclusion of my previous blog, where I tried to emphasize the ethical nature of reading and learning. Enjoy!

"For literary judgment we need to be acutely aware of two things at once: of 'what we like', and of 'what we ought to like'. Few people are honest enough to know either. The first means knowing what we really feel: very few know that. The second involves understanding our shortcomings; for we do not really know what we ought to like unless we also know why we ought to like it, which involves knowing why we don't yet like it. It is not enough to understand what we ought to be, unless we know what we are; and we do not understand what we are, unless we know what we ought to be. The two forms of self-consciousness, knowing what we are and what we ought to be, must go together."