A CRITICISM OF LIFE? 321 



by what he inculcates than by what he shows ; and the truth 

 of Plato's above-mentioned theory is that he may himself be 

 unaware of the far-reaching lessons he communicates. From 

 Shakespeare we could better afford to lose the profound 

 remarks on life in Timon or Troilus and Crcssida, than the 

 delineation of Othello's passion. The speeches of Nestor in 

 the Iliad are less valuable than the portrait of Achilles ; 

 and what Achilles says about fame, heroism, death, and 

 friendship could be sooner spared than the presentment of 

 his action. 



The main thing to keep in mind is this, that the world 

 will very willingly let die in poetry what does not contribute 

 to its intellectual strength and moral vigour. In the long 

 run, therefore, poetry full of matter and moralised wins the 

 day. But it must, before all else, be poetry. The application 

 of the soundest moral ideas, the finest criticism of life, will 

 not save it from oblivion, if it fails in the essential qualities 

 that constitute a work of art. Imagination, or the power to 

 see clearly and to project forcibly ; fancy, or the power to 

 flash new light on things familiar, and by their combination 

 to delight the mind with novelty ; creative genius, or the 

 power of giving form and substance, life and beauty to the 

 figments of the brain ; style, or the power to sustain a flawless 

 and unwavering distinction of utterance ; dramatic energy, 

 or the power to make men and women move before us 

 with self-evident reality in fiction ; passion, sympathy, 

 enthusiasm, or the power of feeling and communicating 

 feeling, of understanding and arousing emotion ; lyrical 

 inspiration, or the power of spontaneous singing these are 

 among the many elements that go to make up poetry, 

 These, no doubt, are alluded to by Mr. Arnold in the clause 

 referring to ' poetic beauty and poetic truth.' But it is 

 needful to insist upon them, after having dwelt so long upon 

 the matter and the moral tone of poetry. No sane critic can 

 deny that the possession of one or more of these qualities in 

 any very eminent degree will save a poet from the neglect 

 to which moral revolt or indifference might otherwise con- 

 demn him. Ariosto's commonplaceness of feeling, Shelley's 



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