This, of course, is not intended to decry such books as Mr. Verity's. I only point out that there is a wrong as well as a right way of using them; and it is not for him, but for teachers, to do their best to discourage the wrong method. They cannot do better than by accepting the method of Professor Raleigh. Professor Raleigh admits that the task of literary criticism is at best one of 'disheartening difficulty.' To appreciate a great author, he says, requires knowledge and industry, and in the end 'it is the critic, and not the author, who is judged by it.' That is clearly true if 'appreciation' means a reasoned estimate of the author's qualities. 'An appreciation of Milton,' said Pattison, 'is the last reward of consummated scholarship'; and yet it is probable that the unlearned John Bright 'appreciated' Milton in another sense as well as Pattison, and incomparably better than Bentley. The first and essential step is the spontaneous love of the poet; where that exists, learning and critical knowledge may reveal new beauties and deepen the sense of the old; to explain and justify the fully-developed sentiment requires the knowledge and industry of which Professor Raleigh speaks, as well as his conspicuous impartiality and power of analysis.
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STUDIES OF A BIOGRAPHER
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