120 INDOOR STUDIES 



extraordinary power witli which Wordsworth feels 

 the joy offered to us in nature, the joy offered to us 

 in simple elementary affections and duties, and be- 

 cause of the extraordinary power with which, in case 

 after case, he shows us this joy and renders it so as 

 to make us share it." 



Arnold has been compared to Sainte-Beuve, but 

 the resemblance is not very striking. Arnold has 

 not the vivacity of mind of the Frenchman, nor the 

 same power to efface himself and his opini(gi)s. It 

 is not an easy matter for an Englishman to efface 

 himself on any occasion. Sainte-Beuve is the better 

 instrument, but Arnold is the greater force. 



In power of concentration and in power of defini- 

 tion, the English critic surpasses his French master. 

 Sainte-Beuve 's power is a power of interpretation; 

 he can adjust himself more closely and happily to a 

 wide diversity of minds than can Arnold. He was 

 not a critic of opinions, doctrines, teachings, but an 

 interpreter of genius in all its forms. No matter 

 what a man taught, so that he taught it well. He 

 has the same pleasure with Pope or Franklin as with 

 Pascal or Massillon. "One loves, one adopts with 

 pleasure," he says, "every kind of genius, every 

 new talent." His mind flows around and around 

 his subject, and envelops it on all sides, and renders 

 the clearest and fullest image of it. He is a pure, 

 disembodied critical spirit, indulging itself to the 

 utmost in the mere pleasure of criticising, of inter- 

 preting; taking possession of every form or kind of 

 genius with like ease and enjoyment, blending itself 



