"First follow Nature, and your judgments frame One clear, unchanged, and universal light, At once the source, the end, the test of art." Thus wrote Alexander Pope a century and three quarters ago, and the utterance, which was a truism then, is none the less a truism to-day. He also put into a few pithy and antithetical lines those commonplaces which in all ages indicate the qualifications of a critic: "Unbiassed or by favour or by spite, Not dully prepossessed, nor blindly right ; Though learned, well-bred, and though well-bred, sincere, Who to a friend his faults can freely show, The same principles apply to the informal criticisms in which most people, of any intellectual attainments at all, occasionally indulge. They read, they judge, and within their own circle they influence. The truer their criticism is, the more do they improve the intellectual standard of those who come in contact with them. But it is not always those, in private any more than in professional criticism, who are most glib with the cant phrases of critical jargon that possess the needful qualifications for passing judgment. A man may easily perk his head on one side, assume a look of knowingness, talk about "middle distance," "body-colour," and "atmosphere," and hum and haw for all the world as if he really knew something about not only the principles, but also the technique of art. There is a sort of superficial criticism which is very common in picture galleries and drawing-rooms, and which is based upon a combination of effrontery and ignorance. You hear practitioners of this school flippantly pronouncing of a picture that it wants harmony, or of an actor that he is deficient in repose, when often enough these are but (to them) meaningless scraps of the terminology of criticism which they have picked up much in the same way as a parrot learns to say "scratch a poll," and "pretty Polly." So, too, with books. Tennyson is pronounced to be failing by drawing-room critics who have hastily glanced over a few extracts from his latest volume in a current and acrimonious review. The trick of it all is easily learnt. It would not be very difficult to compile a phrase-book of criticism,-a sort of vademecum for amateur critics, by the aid of which a person of ordinary intelligence would be able to achieve wonders, backed up with a pragmatic tone and a smattering of literary gossip. Most people, however, who care to give utterance to their critical views at all, would wish to aim at something higher than this wretched make-believe sort of work. In whatever the critic judges, whether he be the critic of the drawing-room or the critic of the public journal, his judgment should be thorough,-to use a fine old word, the spirit of which is too apt to be forgotten in this age of intellectual veneer. Those who read a book, or look at a picture, or witness a piece of acting, should try to understand it, to grapple with its minutest subtleties, to find out, not only what is on the surface, but what undercurrents of motive there are, what the author, or artist, or actor has striven to convey. Let credit be given for conscientious work. Let it be constantly borne in mind that decorous dulness does no great harm, but that the most brilliant work, if its tendency be to corrupt and deprave, deserves no quarter. Every day the importance and the influence of criticism, for good or evil, are extending. Every day some new voice claims to speak with authority. And the work is, on the whole, fairly and diligently done. If it is not perfect, it is, at least, far less careless and unscrupulous than it was half a century ago. Its influence is ever widening. As work multiplies, people are dependent more and more upon the critic's guidance. Thus criticism is coming to play, even more than in the past, a great part in the history of culture and intellectual progress. In spite of all its contradictions, its faults, and its occasional spitefulness, it exercises an enormous influence in shaping popular taste, in leading the popular judgment, and in keeping Art and Literature free from what is enervating, and debasing and vile. "What a great part criticism does perform "-to quote the wise words of the author of "Friends in Council"-"is known to all men. What a still greater it might perform is appreciated by those who would have it blended with knowledge, governed by self-restraint, and enlightened by charity." PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS'S LIST OF BOOKS. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3s. 6d. each. The Wanderer's Library. Illust, Merrie England in the Olden Time. By G. DANIEL. The Old Showmen and the Old London Fairs. By T. FROST. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack. By C. HINDLEY. The World Behind the Scenes. By PERCY FITZGERALD. NEW FINE-ART WORK. Large 4to, cloth extra, 21S. Abdication, The: An Historical Drama. By W. D. SCOTT-MONCRIEFF. With Seven Original Etchings by JOHN PETTIE, R.A., W. Q. ORCHARDSON, R.A., J. MACWHIRTER, A. R.A., COLIN HUNTER, R. MACBETH, and TOM GRAHAM. [In preparation. Crown 8vo, Coloured Frontispiece and Illustrations, cloth gilt, 7s. 6d. Advertising, A History of. From the Earliest Times. Illustrated by Anecdotes, Curious Speclmens, and Notes of Successful Advertisers. By HENRY SAMPSON. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, with 639 Illustrations, 75. 6d. Architectural Styles, A Handbook of. From the German of A. ROSENGARTEN by W. COLLETT-SANDARS. Crown 8vo, with Portrait and Facsimile, cloth extra, 7s. 6d. Artemus Ward's Works: The Works of CHARLES FARRER BROWNE, better known as ARTEMUS |