Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/168

156 RECENT FOREIGN LITERATURE. aveugle et sourd par definition ; si quelqu'un ne lui crie pas, si mille voix autorisees ne lui repetent pas de concert : " Voici un livre," comment et pourquoi voulez-vous qu'il s en avise? Stapfer gives the critic a very high place in the hierarchy of letters. He must have the same kind of genius as the great architects of literature ; he must be artist, scholar, and philosopher in one, for in treating a work of art the critics c en degagent Tesprit, ils jugent, ils generalised, ils decouvrent des lois, ils soignent amoureusement la forme, ils creusent Fidee profondement : ils font oeuvre de poetes et oeuvre de penseurs.' In another essay Stapfer takes a gloomy view of the future of literature. The reign of 'belles lettres ' is over, he complains, and science succeeds to the place it has so long occupied. The best brains take up the sciences, and if they con- tribute to the great discoveries of the time, it matters not how ill they write or speak. The study of literature no longer depends on taste and imagination, but on erudition. Slow composition is out of date ; steam and eleftricity have acceler- ated the circulation of thought, and there will be no more books long meditated, patiently matured and then written with care ; newspaper articles, telegrams, and picture postcards are all the public now demands. But I wonder if at any period in the world's history more than a few persons at one time have greatly cared for literature, and those