236 CHAUCER. 



in a very limited way, in criticism is sure to mislead ; for 

 we should always Lear in mind that the really great writer 

 is great in the mass, and is to be tested less by his cleverness 

 in the elaboration of parts than by that reach of mind which 

 is incapable of random effort, which selects, arranges, 

 combines, rejects, denies itself the cheap triumph of 

 immediate effects, because it is absorbed by the controlling 

 charm of proportion and unity. A careless good-luck of 

 phrase is delightful ; but criticism cleaves to the teleological 

 argument, and distinguishes the creative intellect, not so 

 much by any happiness of natural endowment as by the 

 marks of design. It is true that one may sometimes discover 

 by a single verse whether an author have imagination, or may 

 make a shrewd guess whether he have style or no, just as by 

 a few spoken words you may judge of a man s accent ; but 

 the true artist in language is never spotty, and needs no 

 guide-boards of admiring italics, a critical method introduced 

 by Leigh Hunt, whose feminine temperament gave him 

 acute perceptions at the expense of judgment. This is the 

 Boeotian method, which offers us a brick as a sample of the 

 house, forgetting that it is not the goodness of the separate 

 bricks, but the way in which they are put together, that 

 brings them within the province of art, and makes the 

 difference between a heap and a house. A great writer 

 does not reveal himself here and there, but everywhere. 

 Langland s verse runs mostly like a brook, with a beguiling 

 and well-nigh slumberous prattle, but he, more often than 

 any writer of his class, flashes into salient lines, gets inside 

 our guard with the home-thrust of a forthright word, and 

 he gains if taken piece-meal. His imagery is naturally and 

 vividly picturesque, as where he says of Old Age, 



&quot; Eld the hoar 



That was in the vauntward, 

 And bare the banner before death, 



and he softens to a sweetness of sympathy beyond Chaucer 

 when he speaks of the poor or tells us that Mercy is &quot;sib of 

 all sinful ; &quot; but to compare &quot; Piers Ploughman &quot; with the 

 &quot; Canterbury Tales &quot; is to compare sermon with song. 



