58 ON SOME PRINCIPLES OF CRITICISM 



to give them their due value. It can, however, be laid down, 

 as a general rule, that while immature or awkward work- 

 manship is compatible with aesthetic achievement, technical 

 dexterity, however skilfully applied, has never done anything 

 for a soulless artist. 



Criticism, in the last place, implies judgment ; and that 

 judgment must be adjusted to the special nature of the thing 

 criticised. Art differs from ethics, from the material world, 

 from sensuality however refined. It will not, therefore, in the 

 long run do for the critic of art to apply the same rules as 

 the moralist, the naturalist, or the hedonist. It will not do 

 for him to be contented with edification, or differentiation of 

 species, or demonstrable delightfulness, as the scope and end 

 of his analysis. All art is a presentation of the inner human 

 being, his thought and feeling, through the medium of 

 beautiful symbols in words, form, colour, and sound. Our 

 verdict must consequently be determined by the amount of 

 thought, the amount of feeling, proper to noble humanity, 

 which we find adequately expressed in beautiful aesthetic 

 symbols. And the man who shall pronounce this verdict is, 

 now as in the days of Aristotle, the wise man, the man of 

 enlightened intelligence, the judicious man, the man of just 

 and liberal perceptions, sound in his own nature, and open 

 to ideas. Even his verdict will not be final ; for no one is 

 wholly free from partialities, due to the age in which he lives 

 and to the qualities of his specific temperament. Still, a 

 consensus of such verdicts eventually forms that voice of the 

 people which, according to an old proverb, is the voice of 

 God. Slowly, and after many processes of sifting, the 

 cumulative voice of the wise men, the <^povtju,ot, decides. 

 Insurgents against their judgment in the case for example 

 of acknowledged masters like Michel Angelo, Shakespeare, 

 Mozart are doomed to ultimate defeat, because this judgment 

 is really based upon abiding relations, upon truths for human 

 nature which have been expressed in art. 



Our hope for the future with regard to unity of taste is 

 then : that, academical and sentimental seekings after a fixed 

 ideal having been abandoned, and transient theories founded 



