90 LITBRAEY VALUES 



poetic insight, his burden of conscience, his power 

 of portraiture, his heroic moral fibre, we care a great 

 deal. Arnold thought Carlyle's criticism less sound 

 than Johnson's, — more tainted with engoumi&nt, 

 with passion and appetite, as it probably is ; but 

 how much more incentive, how much more quicken- 

 ing power, how much more of the stuff of which 

 life is made, do we get from Carlyle than from 

 Johnson or from Arnold himself ! 



That the criticism is sound is not enough, — it 

 must also warm and stimulate the mind ; and if it 

 do this we shall not trouble ourselves very much 

 about its conclusions. Even M. Brunetifere says that 

 there are masterpieces in the history of literature 

 and art whose authors were downright fools, as there 

 are, on the other hand, mediocre works from the hands 

 of men of vast intelligence. Very many readers, I 

 fancy, will not rest in the main conclusions at which 

 Tolstoi arrives in his recent discussion of the ques- 

 tion " What is art ? " but who can fail to feel that 

 here is a large, sincere, helpful soul, whose concep- 

 tion of life and of art is of great value ? If we were 

 to estimate Euskin by the soundness of his judg- 

 ments alone, we should miss the most important part 

 of him. It is as a prophet of life as well as a critic 

 of art that we value him. Would he be a better 

 critic were he less a prophet ? 



Or take a more purely critical mind, such as Mat- 

 thew Arnold's. Do we care very much even for his 

 literary judgments ? Do we not care much more for 

 his qualities as a writer, — his lucidity, his central- 



