The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

to with the profoundest respect, a sentence passed on the critic's business,

which seems to justify every possible disparagement of it. Wordsworth says in

one of his letters: The writers in these publications (the Reviews), while they prosecute their

inglorious employment, cannot be supposed to be in a state of mind very

favorable for being affected by the finer influences of a thing so pure as

genuine poetry. And a trustworthy reporter4 of his conversation quotes a more elaborate

judgment to the same effect: Wordsworth holds the critical power very low, infinitely lower than the

inventive; and he said today that if the quantity of time consumed in

1. This essay served as an introduction to Essays introduce all succeeding editions of Words- in Criticism (1865). worth, Mr. Shairp's notice might, it seems to me, 2. On Translating Homer (I 861). excellently serve; it is written from the point of 3. J. C. Shairp's essay "Wordsworth: The Man and view of an admirer, nay, of a disciple, and that the Poet" was published in 1864. Arnold com-is right; but then the disciple must be also, as in ments in a footnote: this case he is, a critic, a man of letters, not, as too often happens, some relation or friend with

I cannot help thinking that a practice, common

no qualification for his task except affection for

in England during the last century, and still fol

his author.

lowed in France, of printing a notice of this kind�a notice by a competent critic�to serve 4. Christopher Wordsworth, Memoirs of William as an introduction to an eminent author's works, Wordsworth (1851). might be revived among us with advantage. To

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THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM AT THE PRESENT TIME / 138 5

writing critiques on the works of others were given to original composition,

of whatever kind it might be, it would be much better employed; it would

make a man find out sooner his own level, and it would do infinitely less

mischief. A false or malicious criticism may do much injury to the minds

of others; a stupid invention, either in prose or verse, is quite harmless. It is almost too much to expect of poor human nature, that a man capable

of producing some effect in one line of literature, should, for the greater good

of society, voluntarily doom himself to impotence and obscurity in another.

Still less is this to be expected from men addicted to the composition of the

"false or malicious criticism" of which Wordsworth speaks. However, every

body would admit that a false or malicious criticism had better never have

been written. Everybody, too, would be willing to admit, as a general propo

sition, that the critical faculty is lower than the inventive. But is it true that

criticism is really, in itself, a baneful and injurious employment; is it true that

all time given to writing critiques on the works of others would be much better

employed if it were given to original composition, of whatever kind this may

be? Is it true that Johnson had better have gone on producing more Irenes5

instead of writing his Lives of the Poets; nay, is it certain that Wordsworth

himself was better employed in making his Ecclesiastical Sonnets than when

he made his celebrated Preface6 so full of criticism, and criticism of the works

of others? Wordsworth was himself a great critic, and it is to be sincerely

regretted that he has not left us more criticism; Goethe was one of the greatest

of critics, and we may sincerely congratulate ourselves that he has left us so

much criticism. Without wasting time over the exaggeration which Words

worth's judgment on criticism clearly contains, or over an attempt to trace the

causes�not difficult, I think, to be traced�which may have led Wordsworth

to this exaggeration, a critic may with advantage seize an occasion for trying

his own conscience, and for asking himself of what real service, at any given

moment, the practice of criticism either is or may be made to his own mind

and spirit, and to the minds and spirits of others. The critical power is of lower rank than the creative. True; but in assenting

to this proposition, one or two things are to be kept in mind. It is undeniable

that the exercise of a creative power, that a free creative activity, is the highest

function of man; it is proved to be so by man's finding in it his true happiness.

But it is undeniable, also, that men may have the sense of exercising this free

creative activity in other ways than in producing great works of literature or

art; if it were not so, all but a very few men would be shut out from the true

happiness of all men. They may have it in well-doing, they may have it in

learning, they may have it even in criticizing. This is one thing to be kept in

mind. Another is, that the exercise of the creative power in the production of

great works of literature or art, however high this exercise of it may rank, is

not at all epochs and under all conditions possible; and that therefore labor

may be vainly spent in attempting it, which might with more fruit be used in