148 Mr. Edward F. Benson [May l, 



least most of them are quietly strolling do^vn from Pisgah again, 

 with their telescopes in their pockets. 



AVe must not, then, ask too much from the critics in the way of 

 recognition of new forms of beauty, for it is pretty clear we shall 

 not get it, and we will hmit our expectations to finding sincerity, 

 knowledge of the subject with which they deal, and expositions 

 grammatically and intelligibly expressed. Even then we must be 

 prepared to find ourselves disappointed by the most learned critics 

 of the day, for even those great enough to sign their names at the 

 top of their articles are placed in a position in which it is diffi(;ult 

 for them to do the work which is demanded of them with anything 

 like thoroughness, or, in the incessant hail of books and pictures 

 that descend on them to read with care, or to look at with a seeing 

 eye, one tithe of what they profess to pronounce on. It has for a 

 long time Ijeen a standing sneer at literary critics, for instance, that 

 they do not read all the books of which they so pontifically judge ; 

 and we find that this sneer, if it is a matter for sneering, is sub- 

 stantiated with charming naivete by one of the most prominent of 

 them whom I will call Scriptor. Every week, or oftener for all 

 I know, he reviews with considerable pomp some outstanding pub- 

 lication, and not long ago he made a candid confession as to his 

 methods. " I do not propose," he wrote, " to have read the whole 

 of Mr. George Moore's final instalment of biography which he calls 

 'Yale.' It runs to 350 pages, and the book is closely written, so 

 that the despairing reviewer finds it well-nigh impossible to adopt 

 his customary device of skipping." Then follows a review as papal 

 as usual. Now this is all very well for the despairing reviewer, but 

 what of the despairing author or the despairing pul)lic who expect 

 at the hands of so eminent a critic something more than this ? Is 

 it any wonder that critics have not much authority when the fore- 

 most of them all complains that the close writing of a book forbids 

 him to skip, and that therefore he has not read it all ? But his 

 avowedly shght acquaintance with his subject does not impede the 

 finality of his judgment. But pontificality is characteristic of 

 Scriptor's work ; and if a contemporary account of the creation of 

 the world turned up, and Scriptor thought it worth reviewing, he 

 would give the impression of having had a hand in it himself, and 

 of having been chosen as conductor of the morning stars when they 

 sang together. I do not complain of this solemnity ; the judge 

 should be bewigged and berobed even though he has not followed 

 the whole of the case ; he should not jest as some judges do when on 

 the bench : or try to be witty, which indeed Scriptor never attempts. 

 But the solemnity does not conceal a certain difiiculty that Scriptor 

 seems to experience in writing the English language quite correctly. 

 The following sentence, for instance, is not quite happy. "Whit- 

 man's life, especially during the last part of it, is that which ought 

 to rest in the memories of his countrymen, and which was in many 



