II. subject which is abstruse must be dull and CHAPTER killing to discuss; and it is quite certain that if this subject of the movement of the mind in art is not made interesting the fault lies with the writer, and not in the subject. There is a curious picture in the Arabian Nights of a little turbaned fellow sitting crosslegged on the ground, with pistachio nuts and dates in his lap. He cracks the nuts, munches the kernels and throws the shells to the left, while by a judicious alternation he sucks the delicate pulp of the dates and throws the stones to his right. The philosopher looks on with a mild interest and speculates on the moral that sometimes the insides of things are best and sometimes the outsides. Now, most of the discussions on mind with which we are familiar are like the pistachio nuts of the gentleman of Bagdad: the shell is uninviting, and the kernel, which is hard to get at, and most frequently is rotten, is the only part that is palatable. But there is no reason why these discussions should But that not on the outside be as palatable as the date; not neces and if we cannot swallow the stones, still they are not useless, but may be turned to account as seed. The simile is rather elaborate, yet perhaps it is clear; and I shall be glad if in any way it should suggest to my readers that in here inviting them to a psychological discussion I am luring them not to a study which will The subject break their jaws with hard words and their really as in dulness is sary. CHAPTER patience with the husks of logic, but to one II. which, if not unfairly treated, ought to be as teresting as fascinating as romance: romance. Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute. CHAPTER III. THE DESPAIR OF A SCIENCE. T CAN scarcely be a matter of sur- CHAPTER prise, that amid the littlenesses of III. of critical the lower criticism, the confusion and conflicts of the higher, any attempt in our day to work towards a science of criticism The despair is sure to be met with a profound despair. science not I do not merely mean that the world will surprising. have its doubts as to this or that man's ability to approach the science. That is quite fair and natural. The doubt is, whether the science be approachable by any son of man. It is a doubt that cleaves just now to any science which has the mind and will of man for its theme. Methods of criticism are nothing, it may be said, for all methods, including the method of comparative criticism, must fail, when the object is to resolve human work to scientific law. I therefore desire, in this chapter, to make a few remarks on that despair with which nearly all |