THE ENGLISH REVIEWERS
(1821)
English critics, as we have come to know them from their various Reviews, deserve a great deal of respect. Their acquaintance not only with their own literature, but also with that of other countries, is most gratifying; the seriousness and the thoroughness with which they go to work arouse our admiration, and we are glad to confess that much may be learned from them. Moreover, we find ourselves very favorably impressed by the attitude these men take toward their calling as critics and the respect which they have for the intelligence of the public,—a public, to be sure, which is very attentive to all things written and spoken, but is probably hard to satisfy, and ever disposed to contradict and argue.
No matter how thorough and comprehensive the presentation of a case by an attorney before a body of judges or by a speaker before a provincial diet may be, some opponent will very soon come to the fore with forcible arguments; the attentive and critical hearers will themselves be divided, and many an important matter is often decided by a very small majority.
Such a spirit of opposition, even though passive, we occasionally assume toward critics, both at home and abroad, whose knowledge of facts we by no means deny and whose premises we often grant, but whose conclusions nevertheless we do not share.
Still we must be especially forbearing to the English when they appear harsh and unjust toward foreign productions; for those who count Shakespeare among their forebears may well allow themselves to be carried away by their pride of ancestry.