Points of Friction
servative critic practises that watchful waiting, so safe in the world of art, so hazardous in the world of action. He cannot do as he has been bidden, and judge the novel product by its own standards, for that would be to exempt it from judgment. Nothing—not even a German—can be judged by his—or its—own standard. If there is to be any standard at all, it must be based on comparison. Keen thoughts and vivid words have their value, no matter in what form they are presented; but unless that form be poetical, the presentation is not poetry. There is a world of truth in Mr. Masters's brief and bitter lines:
"Beware of the man who rises to power
From one suspender."
It has the kind of sagacity which is embodied in the old adage, "You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear," and it is as remote from the requirements of prosody.
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