104 LITERARY VALUES 



Different types of mind, individual idiosyncrasy, op- 

 posing theories and methods, stand out just as clearly 

 in this branch as in any other branch of mental ac- 

 tivity. From Madame de Stael down through Ba- 

 rante, Villemain, Nisard, Sainte-Beuve, to Brunetiere 

 and the critics of our own day, criticism has been in- 

 dividualistic, and has reflected as many types of mind 

 and points of view as there have been critics. Where 

 shall we look for the final criticism ? First it is 

 classicism that rules, then it is romanticism, then 

 naturalism, and next, we are told, it is to be idealism. 

 Whichever it is, it is true enough when uttered by 

 vital and earnest minds, and serves its purpose. 

 There are many excellences, but where is the supreme 

 excellence ? The naturalism of Sainte-Beuve is ex- 

 cellent, the positivism of Nisard is excellent, the 

 classicism of Brunetiere is excellent, and the deter- 

 minism of Tains yields interesting results ; but all 

 are relative, all are experimental, all are subject to 

 revision. It is given to no man to have a mono- 

 poly of truth. It is given to no poet to have a mo- 

 nopoly of beauty. There is one beauty of Milton, 

 another of Wordsworth, another of Burns, another 

 of Tennyson. To seize upon and draw out the char- 

 acteristic beauty of each, and give his reader a lively 

 sense of it, is the business of the critic. 



VIII 



Our reading is a search for the excellent, for the 

 vital and characteristic, which may assume as many 

 and diverse forms in art and literature as it does 



