MR. BIRRELL ON CRITICISM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 November 1907, Page 13

MR. BIRRELL ON CRITICISM.

Mr. Augustine Birrell, M.P., heralds forth a now departure in the critical department of tho "Contemporary Review" with a charming article in the October number on "Tho Critical Faculty." . "I am glad to hear," ho;says, "that tho "Contemporary Review" is proposing to roorganiso- its critical' department, and, in future, is to devote a somowhat special attention to tho jconsidoFation of books. But how is this to be done, and who is going, to do it? A reviewer of books, new or old, is, I suppose, a person with viows and opinions of his own about lifo and literature, science and art, fashion, stylo, and fancy, which ho applies ruthlessly or pleasantly, dogmatically or suggestivoly, ironically or plainly, as his humour prompts or his method dictates, to books written by somebody else. Ho was onco a, moro formidable person than he is now usually, credited with being, but such as ho is ho still goes on his waylaying what ho thinks fit to say about tho books summoned before him. ...

"Criticism begins with tho ego of tho critic. . ■ .

This likes me moro and this affects me less. All such, criticism'is fearless. _ Tho author counts for nothing. A hook, like an apple, is good or bad. A. child onco ran to his mother, crying aloud in tbo joy of discovery: 'There is a hotter book than the Biblo,' and so began a long series of adventures among masterpieces. ■ Tho Notes of.tlio Critic. "Perhaps the most fascinating chapters in tho history of criticism will .always bo those personal records of literacy sensations,' peculiar to tho individual who records them. , They havo life within their veins; but (for let no honest man deceive himself) that lifo is\ itself a literary lifo. Tho recording ego must bo ono who knows himself how to hold a pen. Plain truth is no good. Tho charm is in tho. composition. "Criticism, however, means more'than a record by a man or woman of genius of adventures among masterpieces. It is a grave conoorn, and sweeps the whqlo universe with-, in its not. There is nothing abovo or beyond criticism, unless it bo tho i starry heavens. " Tho two notes of tho critic are sympathy and -knowledge I havo.not chanted vorse like Homer, no— Nor owopt string like Terpander, no—nor carved And painted mon like Phidias and his . ■ friend: ,1 am. not 'grent as they aro,..point by point..' ■' ■ . But I havo entered into sympathy With these four, running theso into ono soul, ' Who, sonarato, ignored each other s art. Say, is it nothing that I know thorn (all? ... "As noithor sympathy nor knowledge can ever bo complete, tho perfect critic is an impossibility. A young Oxonian once complacently announced to Mark Pattison his intention of editing an edition of Seidell's "i'able-Talk. 1 The learned man warmly congratulated tho would-bo editor upoij his ch'oico, remarking how easy it would be for him to road every printed book it was possible for Solden to havo read, and thus to qualify himsolf within'the compass of a dozen studious years to add a few really explanatory notes to tho 'Table-Talk.' Tlio young man shuddered and at onco abandoned tbo idea, and generously made a present of it to a quick-witted friend who, not knowing Mark Pattison, was ablo, without a pang, to produce* his edition in three months. Tho reviowors all spoke well of his labours, and ■is tho majority of them woro probably reading tho 'Table-Talk' for tlio first time, it was only decent of thorn to do so. It is hard for a reviewer to help being ignorant, but lie need nover bp a hypocrite, Steeped in conceit, sublimed by ignorance.

Knoiisiedsa » Criticism. "Knowledge certainly seems of tho very easonce of good criticism, and yet, though wo aro all of necossity critics, how far-reaching is most men's ignorance I Bishops, debating tho marriage laws' in the prcsenco of half a dozen anthropologists who had specialised in the history. of' human marriage would hardly present a moro ironical speetaclo than is afforded by most' of our public or private disputations. ' Can any man now be' pronounced . fit to criticise even a short story of tho Western World , who has not read Balzac, Turgenieff, Guy <lo Maupassant, and Tolstoi? How many languages, how many literatures should ho known to a presentday critic of Belles Lcttres before ho has tho effrontery to produce his nieasuring-tapo and publish 'the result of his examination ? As for tho critic of history or of science— what is to, happen to him? Must ho have travelled along the same roads and examined tho saino authorities as his author? . If ho has not, it is hard to sec'wherein tho value of his criticism can bo. "Yet the judgments of tho learned often carry no weight" and deserve to carry none. Judging is more than knowing. Ihoro' is that ounco of mother-wit which is worth, all tho world over, more than a pound of clorf'y. Taste, delicacy, discrimination—unless"" the critic has some of these,-ho is nought."