And of the critic himself what shall we say?- for as yet we have
spoken only the proem to the true epopea. What can we better say of
him than, with Bulwer, that "he must have courage to blame boldly,
magnanimity to eschew envy, genius to appreciate, learning to compare,
an eye for beauty, an ear for music, and a heart for feeling." Let
us add, a talent for analysis and a solemn indifference to abuse.
BALLADS AND OTHER POEMS
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, author of "Voices of the Night,"
"Hyperion," &c. Second edition. John Owen, Cambridge.
"IL Y A A PARIER," says Chamfort, "que toute idee publique, toute
convention recue, est une sottise, car elle a convenu au plus grand
notore."- One would be safe in wagering that any given public idea
is erroneous, for it has been yielded to the clamor of the
majority,- and this strictly philosophical, although somewhat French
assertion has especial bearing upon the whole race of what are
termed maxims and popular proverbs; nine-tenths of which are the
quintessence of folly. One of the most deplorably false of them is the
antique adage, De gustibus non est disputandum- there should be no
disputing about taste. Here the idea designed to be conveyed is that
any one person has as just right to consider his own taste the true,
as has any one other- that taste itself, in short, is an arbitrary
something, amenable to no law, and measurable by no definite rules.
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