124 LITEEAKY VALUES 



ness of the gourmand for a particular dish, or of the 

 toper for his favorite tipple. His enthusiasm was 

 intemperate, and therefore unsound. Doubtless 

 some such objection as this may be urged against 

 most of Carlyle's criticisms. He was ruled by his 

 character more than by his intellect ; his feeling 

 guided his vision. If he is not always a light to the 

 reason, he is certainly an electric excitant to the 

 imagination and the moral sense. In his essays, 

 pamphlets, histories, we hardly get judicial estimates 

 of things ; rather do we get overestimates or un- 

 der estimates. Yet always is there something that 

 kindles and brings the blood to the surface. Car- 

 lyle will beget a stronger race than Arnold, but it 

 will not be so cool and clear-headed. Emerson will 

 fertilize more minds with new thought than Lowell, 

 but there will be many more cranks and fanatics 

 and hobbyists among them. 



Professor Dowden says Landor falls below Shelley 

 and Wordsworth because he had no divine message 

 or oracle to deliver to the men of his generation, — 

 no authentic word of the Lord to utter. Landor had 

 great thoughts, but they were not of first-rate impor- 

 tance with reference to his times. He was more 

 thoroughly imbued with the classic spirit than either 

 Shelley or Wordsworth, and the classic spirit is at 

 ease in Zion. The modern world differs from the 

 ancient in its moral stress and fervor. This moral 

 stress and fervor both Shelley and Wordsworth 

 shared, but Landor did not. Where would the 

 world be in thought, in works, in civilization, had 



