RECENT PHASES OF LITEKAKY CEITICISM 127 



Goethe said that a loving interest in the per- 

 son and the works of an author, amounting to a 

 certain one-sided enthusiasm, alone led to reality in 

 criticism ; all else was vanity. No doubt more will 

 come of the contact of two minds under these cir- 

 cumstances than from what is called the judicial 

 attitude ; there will he more complete fusion and 

 interpenetration ; without a certain warmth and pas- 

 sion there is no fruitfulness, even in criticism. In 

 the field of art and literature, to be disinterested 

 does not mean to be cold and judicial ; it means to 

 be free from bias, free from theories and systems, 

 with mind open to receive a clear impression of the 

 work's characteristic merits and qualities. 



It is tradition that always stands in the way of 

 the new man. In politics, it is the political tradi- 

 tion ; in religion, the religious tradition ; and in 

 literature, the literary tradition. Professional criti- 

 cism is the guardian of the literary tradition, and 

 this is why any man who essays a new departure in 

 literary art has reason to fear criticism or despise it, 

 as the case may be. 



It is when we take up any new work in the judi- 

 cial spirit, bent upon judging and classifying, rather 

 than upon enjoying and understanding, the conscious 

 analytical intellect on duty and the sympathies and 

 the intuitions under lock and key, that there is 

 danger that judicial blindness will fall upon us. 

 When we approach nature in the spirit of technical 



