100 LITERARY VALUES 



man. We look for the measure of nature or natural 

 force and authority in these types. Nature is of all 

 types ; she is of to-day as well as of yesterday ; she 

 is of this century as well as of the first ; she was with 

 Burns as well as with Pindar. Because the Greek 

 was natural, shall we say therefore nature is Greek ? 

 She is Asiatic, Icelandic, Saxon, Celtic, American, 

 as well. She is all things to all men ; and without 

 her nothing is that is. 



VII 



Truth is both subjective and objective. The for- 

 mer is what is agreeable to one's constitution and 

 point of view, or mental and spiritual make-up. 

 Objective truth is verifiable truth, or what agrees 

 with outward facts and conditions. 



Criticism deals with both aspects. It is objective 

 when it is directed upon objective or verifiable facts ; 

 it is subjective when it is directed upon subjective 

 facts. It is an objective fact, for instance, that such 

 a man as Shakespeare lived in such a country in 

 such a time, that he wrote various plays of such and 

 such a character, and that these plays were founded 

 upon other plays or legends or histories. But the 

 poetic truth, the poetic beauty of these plays, their 

 covert meanings, the philosophy that lies back of 

 them, are not in the same sense objective facts. la 

 these respects no two persons read them just alike. 

 Hamlet has been interpreted in many ways. Which 

 Hamlet is the true one, Goethe's, or Coleridge's, or 

 Hazlitt's, or Kean's, or Booth's ? Each is true, so 



