It is a test of opinion. Its
acuteness is not pedantic, but philosophical; it unravels the web of
the author's mystery to interpret his meaning to others; it detects
his sophistry, because sophistry is injurious to the heart and life;
it promulgates his beauties with liberal, generous praise, because
this is his true duty as the servant of truth. Good criticism may be
well asked for, since it is the type of the literature of the day.
It gives method to the universal inquisitiveness on every topic
relating to life or action. A criticism, now, includes every form of
literature, except perhaps the imaginative and the strictly
dramatic. It is an essay, a sermon, an oration, a chapter in
history, a philosophical speculation, a prose-poem, an art-novel, a
dialogue, it admits of humor, pathos, the personal feelings of
autobiography, the broadest views of statesmanship. As the ballad
and the epic were the productions of the days of Homer, the review
is the native characteristic growth of the nineteenth century."
We respect the talents of Mr. Mathews, but must dissent from
nearly all that he here says. The species of "review" which he
designates as the "characteristic growth of the nineteenth century" is
only the growth of the last twenty or thirty years in Great Britain.
The French Reviews, for example, which are not anonymous, are very
different things, and preserve the unique spirit of true criticism.
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