66 ON SOME PRINCIPLES OF CRITICISM 



displayed in his application of them to particulars rather than 

 in his philosophical ingenuity. 



It furthermore implies a previous study of history. The 

 critic should be familiar with the main literatures and art- 

 epochs of the past. This, in fact, is more important than the 

 metaphysical groundwork of criticism, and is consistent with 

 the leading philosophical impulse of our age. For a time at 

 least we have abandoned a priori and deductive methods for 

 the study of natural development, and for the inductive 

 accumulation of facts which shall enable us to understand 

 phenomena. 



It implies a certain amount of technical skill. In order 

 to pronounce opinions upon music, the critic must possess 

 some knowledge of harmony and some command of an 

 instrument. The critic of poetry must understand the 

 prosody of quantity and accent. The critic of sculpture 

 and painting ought to be at least to some extent a draughts- 

 man and a colourist. The critic of architecture should have 

 studied the mathematics of proportion and the mechanical 

 laws of structure. 



Nevertheless, the critic need not be a professed meta- 

 physician, a recognised historian, a practical artist, or an 

 acknowledged poet. Poets, artists, historians, and meta- 

 physicians may indeed be excellent critics, but not by reason 

 of their special faculty in those departments. The critic is 

 separate from the specialist in any line of art or literature or 

 philosophy ; and nothing is more false than the assumption 

 that specialists should only be judged by specialists. The 

 critic represents and instructs that vast majority of intelligent 

 beings for whom the specialists produce their several works. 

 He has to apply the faculty of sense and judgment which 

 belongs to all liberal natures, but which he has trained beyond 

 the ordinary degree of subtlety and precision by the exercise 

 of sensibility and the acquisition of exact knowledge. It is 

 the critic's function to act as interpreter and balance-holder, 

 to lead and enlighten the common intelligence which forms 

 the final court of appeal in matters of taste, to shape and 

 express the judgments of the </>pdvt/xoi or men of sober wisdom. 



