But stop, some one will say; all this talk is of no practical use to us whatever; this criticism of yours is not what we have in our minds when we speak of criticism; when we speak of critics and criticism, we mean critics and criticism of the current English literature of the day:  when you offer to tell criticism its function, it is to this criticism that we expect you to address yourself.  I am sorry for it, for I am afraid I must disappoint these expectations.  I am bound by my own definition of criticism; a disinterested endeavor to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world..  How much of current English literature comes into this “best that is known and thought in the world”?  Not very much I fear; certainly less, at this moment, than of the current literature of France or Germany.  Well, then, am I to alter my definition of criticism, in order to meet the requirements of a number of practising English critics, who, after all, are free in their choice of a business?  That would be making criticism lend itself just to one of those alien practical considerations, which, I have said, are so fatal to it.  One may say, indeed, to those who have to deal with the mass—­so much better disregarded—­of current English literature, that they may at all events endeavor, in dealing with this, to try it, so far as they can, by the standard of the best that is known and thought in the world; one may say, that to get anywhere near this standard, every critic should try and possess one great literature, at least, besides his own; and the more unlike his own, the better.  But, after all, the criticism I am really concerned with,—­the criticism which alone can much help us for the future, the criticism which, throughout Europe, is at the present day meant, when so much stress is laid on the importance of criticism and the critical spirit,—­is a criticism which regards Europe as being, for intellectual and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, bound to a joint action and working to a common result; and whose members have, for their proper outfit, a knowledge of Greek, Roman, and Eastern antiquity, and of one another.  Special, local, and temporary advantages being put out of account, that modern nation will in the intellectual and spiritual sphere make most progress, which most thoroughly carries out this program.  And what is that but saying that we too, all of us, as individuals, the more thoroughly we carry it out, shall make the more progress?

There is so much inviting us!—­what are we to take? what will nourish us in growth towards perfection?  That is the question which, with the immense field of life and of literature lying before him, the critic has to answer; for himself first, and afterwards for others.  In this idea of the critic’s business the essays brought together in the following pages have had their origin; in this idea, widely different as are their subjects, they have, perhaps, their unity.