84 LITEKAEY VALUES 



perfect after its kind. Their kind is usually obvi- 

 ous at a glance, but their merits or demerits, their 

 relation to the best that has been thought and done 

 in the world, are not so obvious. Hence we praise 

 or blame according as they come up to or fall short 

 of their own ideal. The critic is not so much a bot- 

 anist naming a new flower, as he is a brother gar- 

 dener criticising your horticulture, or a brother law- 

 yer criticising your brief. We are all critics in this 

 sense one way or another every day of our lives ; we 

 try to get at the real value of whatever is offered us, 

 whether it be lands, houses, goods, friends, stocks, 

 bonds, news, pictures, or books ; we criticise the men 

 we deal with and employ in order to find out whom 

 to trust ; we must have our wits about us when we 

 go to market or go shopping. iThe critical habit — 

 sifting, testing, comparing, to get at the true value of 

 things — goes with us through life, or else we come 

 often to grief. The finer the product, or the higher 

 the purpose it serves, the more careful is our inves- 

 tigation. 



When we come to literature and art our worldly 

 practical wisdom does not carry very far. It is not 

 now a question of fact or of material values, but of 

 ideal and aesthetic values ; it is a question of truth 

 to nature and to life, and of the largest, most vital 

 truth. The mass of readers have little power of 

 divining the good from the bad, the true from the 

 false, in this field. Not the first best, but the sec- 

 ond or third best will draw the multitude. 



The literary value of a work is more intangible 



