1 86 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



poems, fail of their full effect on a first view, but that 

 they fail of it just in proportion as they are great. 

 Only the most experienced judges can recognise a 

 work of the highest order at sight ; even to them the 

 proper realisation of its true compass and depth 

 comes only through repeated examination and careful 

 study ; while the ordinary examiner finds the first 

 impression of the greatest works ineffective or even 

 disappointing. Work of genius demands for its swift 

 recognition an answering genius in the beholder ; in 

 lack of it, there must be a patient teachableness, that 

 awaits the slow self-revelation of greatness. 



So far, somewhat altered in form of expression, 

 and with its implied grounds partially exhibited, the 

 theory presented by Professor Le Conte. We have 

 from it a fruitful conception of the ground-trait in 

 the essential principle of poetry. Namely : All poetry, 

 in common with all other art, must combine in one 

 whole a fact of sense and the real-ideal of the imagi- 

 nation — the ideal that conforms to the root-idea of 

 the fact. This real-ideal must in poetry, as in Nature, 

 accord with the principle that determines the per- 

 manent worth of man ; and the whole into which the 

 ideal and the fact are blended, must in order to 

 poetic treatment be presented as a self-justifying 

 end — the poet must regard and treat his poem as 

 completely its own end. 



