The Express.
London, England, 1868-09-29 00:00:00

Is rt-swsulD

EVERY EVENING.

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPT. 29.

LITERARY CRITICISM.

IT has las-n repeatedly asked whether eritiei,in
is a Is•netit to literature. Does a whole:mile
fear of the reviewers stimulate. men of g-nius, un
the one hand. and, on the other haul, dis-
courage the' puny efforts of feeble %%Titers .7 Are
reade:s better for the critics ; are authors under
an obligatiem to them These que-stions are often
put. ailel it they cannot be answered in the affir-
mative. the vocation of the critic is worse than
used. -s, aml. as an honest man, he had bet!,,.: re-
nounce it tor a more [valourAle
may whd,.r, . at the outset, that the
write is w 1.., el, criticism have some 1...A-
-rt.l'lo.h t-i,.unds of obj..etion to the art. TM•y
affirm that it is too oft. .n
rant. j•tejudiceei ; and they point to a
numter of cases in which the rash a-eserthni a the
reviewer Las been upset ley the juelgiu.,:et of
poster,ey. Everylx.dy with a turn for liter.itare
will re member a score of foolish criticism., some
of which are no doubt ludicrous enough. It may
be remembered too, that a few of the finest critic.;
England has produced have expressed their dis-
belief in the worth of the labour in which they
Lave en in. ntly excelled. Thus Mr. GEotteir.
Lt.wEs, who has himself been " actively
" ungag• din criticism for upwards of a quarter of
" a «itury," Las declared that the good effected
by criticism is small and the evil incalculable,
while SOUTIIEY even went so far as to regard it as
an immoral occupation, unless the reviewer has
" as much knowledge of the given subject as the
•• author upon whom he undertakes to sit in julg-
" went."

We readily grant that in literature, as in life,
insincerity and incapacity are the sources of un-
numbered a vil,. The stupid critic and the dis-
honest critic do no doubt inflict consideruld
injury. The flippancy of hasty reviewers is pro-
voking enough. It is hard for a write r who ha,
spent month-, or perhaps years WI Millie Weighty
SlibieC, to have his book " damned with faint
praise :. fr. contemptuously dismissed in a
paragraph whieb shows that the reviewer has
not even taken the trouble to comprehend the
purpose of the work. It is hard again, and
indeed to n sensitive nature, irritating beyond
measure, to have the child of one's bruin used
Inertly as the peg for a critic's remarks, und it is
even harder still to find that in making these
remarks he has extracted the cream of the work
which he scarcely deigns to notice.
Agin'', it is said that the fear of criticism re-
views.; originality, but there is not much force in
this state inent. What great writer was ever yet
laughed clown % What great work ever suffered
111011, than a temporary eclipse On the contrary,
it must be owned, and this no doubt is to the dis-
credit of a certain class of reviewers, that a weak
and evert an immoral hook may be puffed into tem-
porary notoriety. But in the main, and in a land
where men are accustomed to speak their minds
freely, the criticism of un author, like the criticism
of a government, exerts a wholesome influence.
The political critic gives his views of a statesman
policy, the literary critic pmnouneca his judg-
ment on a book, and in so doing both, if honest
and able men, will merit the attention cif
the public. They will not be always right, they
may Kenn-times be conspicuously wrong in their
judgements; nevertheless, the frees: expression of
their opinions enables the reader of new books and
the man interested in public affairs to arrive at a
sound conclusion. There are critics and critics
won who act the part of literary tasters for the
public, and men who write in the belief that criti-
cism is u seience, and not a matter of sentiment
and feeling. Literature, like Nature, is governed
by certain laws, which even the greatest writer
cannot neglect with impunity. Within the range
of thew! laws there is ample sperm for the most
brilliant genius, who will find that a wholesome
measure of restraint is of infinite service in reliev-
ing him from what WORDSWORTH calls " the weight

"of too much liberty." Criticism of the highest
order affects literature by oxeroising this restrain-
ing influence upon authors, whereas criticism
of a lower stamp is mainly serviceable to
readers. Men engaged in business and women
who read chiefly for salient need some thread
to guide them through the intrioate maces of
modern literature. This thread is supplied to
them by the reviewer. Two thousand now books
are published annually in England alone, and it is
raid that a fresh novel appears almost daily. We
do not believe the assertion recently made in a
well-known journal that with one or two excep-
tions dead authors are rarely read, but there can
be no question that among non-literary people the
latest author has always the best chanoo of
popularity. Mon and women who never
looked into RuniARDOON or FIELDING are
familiar with Miss Baannox ; there are a
thousand readers of Mr. TENNYSON'S poetry
to ODD reader of " Paradise Lost" or the " Rape of
" the Lock" ; no doubt oven Sir WALTER Soon
has been thrust a little on one side by 01ORGE
Et.toT and Mr. DICKENS, and no doubt there are a
score of living eaeayista who, without possessing a
tenth part of Anmeoe's ability, are a thousand
times more popular.
All this is natural enough, and the moat pas-
sionate admirer of old literature will aooept it as
inevitable. The book of the hour, like the daily
newspaper, has a claim upon the attention which
the old book and the old journal cannot possibly
poeree.s. But amidst the plethora of literary wealth
that surrounds us, it is no small help to ascertain
the aim and style of a work before we road it.
The reviewer who knows his business will not be
tuithdied with vague comments on a book, but
will give an analysis of its contents. Ile will ro-
ue wlx•r the Found advice of Pore
le every wet': reliant the writer's end,
Sirs,' few can compass more than they intend.
He will give a reason for his praise as well as for
his blame, and ho will put the reader in the posi-
tion to form a correct judgment. Moreover, if
he does his work carelessly or with prejudice,
his judgment is sure to be counteracted
by nnother criticism, and the reader of average
intelligence is generally able to take the measure
of the two. Thus the very difference of opinion
displayed by critics is in itself an advantage.
'letter for the public and for literature that there
should be " free trade" in criticism than that
any one journal should be all powerful to approve
or to condemn. A hundred years a•,o " that
•• critical Rhadamanthus," as CavrrEa •afterwards
culled it, the Monthly Review, was the supreme
ailiter of an author's fortunes, and on Ott.tY's
'• Elegy,— the moat popular NOM in the language.
the journal thus delivered itself :—" This little
" poem, however humble its pretensions, is net
" without eleganoo or merit." Happily su
itis iern would be impossible in these days be-
cause then• is no Review that can utter what it
pleases without fear of contradiction.