Very few contemporary writers on aesthetics in English occupy Richards' authoritative position. Since the publication of The Principles of Literary Criticism his theories have gained increasingly in prestige among theoretical writers as well as among practical critics, and he seems in the process of gathering a school. Those interested in aesthetics or in practical criticism will generally admit, I believe, that his influence has already had some very salutary effects. He has been instrumental in sobering speculation; he has called attention to a number of problems hitherto inadequately dealt with, notably the problem of communication; and with profound conviction he has insisted on the need we moderns have of art. No doubt these achievements explain in part the prestige his doctrines enjoy. But the felt need, inchoate and confused, for a 'scientific' aesthetics, the meagerness of experimental results, and perhaps also the imperial manner Richards has of dismissiong...