ON SOME PRINCIPLES OF CRITICISM 63 



remarks, ' to follow the common reason of the world ; yet, 

 though there is a common reason in the world, the majority 

 live as though they possessed a wisdom peculiar each unto 

 himself alone.' 



The object of education is to provide us in youth with a 

 sense of this common reason a just if general view of what 

 mankind as a whole is a notion of what has been thought 

 and wrought by our race in its totality, of what humanity at 

 its best and strongest has achieved by interrupted yet con- 

 tinuous effort, of how we come to be what we are and to 

 think and feel as we do. Humanism, the study of history 

 and literature and art and law, suffices better than any other 

 training for this needful propaedeutic. It is superior to the 

 study of mathematical and natural science, because its matter 

 is of greater moral and mental importance to humanity; 

 while, as a discipline, it is not inferior if rigorously con- 

 ducted upon systematic method. Such education prepares the 

 specialist to judge with width of sympathy and due regard 

 for relations, to overcome personal caprice and predilection, 

 and to survey the particular plot he selects for exploration as 

 part of one great whole. 



It may be added that liberal culture of the sort described 

 goes far towards emancipating men from the vanity which 

 aims at originality in and out of season. In their desire to 

 be original, or to appear original, critics too often forget the 

 paramount necessity of being true. It is better to repeat old 

 things, if they are true, than to improvise new things, if they 

 are not true. A man who thinks that he has caught some 

 novel glimpse upon a well-worn subject, is tempted to distort 

 the truth in his eagerness to do the discovery full justice. 

 This leads to paradox: and paradox, though bolstered up 

 with epigram, has no prospect of survival except through the 

 grain of truth which may be contained in it. 



There is a difficulty here for the critic, who must always 

 to some extent appear as the law-giver or law-expounder. 

 From time to time he will find himself, through his own 

 sincerity, in the position of an innovator, and may expect to 

 be classified with the paradox-mongers. In these cicum- 



