6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION 



the growth of organism. It follows that the line of thought 

 which we call Evolutionary infuses new vitality into history, 

 into every study of the past, and into all branches of criticism. 

 At the present moment I wish to contribute some considera- 

 tions regarding the most obvious ways of applying it to the 

 history of art and literature not because this is a matter of 

 first importance, but because I speak with firm personal con- 

 viction on the topic. 



When I was a young man, in the sixties, I remember 

 that we students of European culture had to choose between 

 connoisseurs and metaphysicians for our guides. On the 

 one hand were the people who praised the * Correggiosity of 

 Correggio,' or ' swore by Perugino,' or promulgated the 

 1 preciousness of Fra Angelico,' as though Correggio, Perugino, 

 and the Dominican painter of San Marco were respectively 

 descended full-formed from the skies to instruct an un- 

 enlightened world. Each connoisseur sailed under his self- 

 chosen flag, proclaimed his own proclivities, and preached the 

 gospel of his particular taste. There were not wanting even 

 folk who pinned their faith to Sir Joshua and the Caracci. 

 Caprice on this side governed judgment ; and what I have 

 stated with regard to figurative art was no less true of poetry 

 and literature. There seemed to be no light or leading in the 

 chaos of opinion. On the other hand were ranged the formal 

 theorists, who constructed a scheme of art upon subjective 

 principles. They bade us direct our minds to the idea, the 

 Begriff of art ; and having thence obtained a concept, we 

 were invited to reject as valueless whatever would not square 

 with the logical formula. 



Between these opposed teachers, the pure connoisseurs and 

 the pure metaphysicians, Goethe emerged like a steady guiding 

 star. His felicitous summary of criticism, ' Im Ganzen, Guten, 

 Schonen, resolut zu leben ' (To live resolvedly in the whole, 

 the good, the beautiful), came like a deliverance. Instinctively 

 we felt that the central point for us, if we would erect criticism 

 into a science, was not caprice, not personal proclivity, not 

 particular taste, but a steady comprehension of the whole. 

 How to grasp the whole, how to reach a point of view from 



