de;" finally, on hearing that the mutineers were successful, he
went on deck, and seeing Bligh pinioned to the mast, he put his fist to
his nose, and otherwise insulted him. Now, there are many writers of the
present day whose conduct is very similar to that of the sailor. They
lie listening in their corners till they have ascertained which principle
has most advocates; then, presently, they make their appearance on the
deck of the world with their book; if truth has been victorious, then has
truth their hurrah! but if truth is pinioned against the mast, then is
their fist thrust against the nose of truth, and their gibe and their
insult spirted in her face. The strongest party had the sailor, and the
strongest party has almost invariably the writer of the present day.

CHAPTER IX. PSEUDO-CRITICS.

A certain set of individuals calling themselves critics have attacked
Lavengro with much virulence and malice. If what they call criticism had
been founded on truth, the author would have had nothing to say. The
book contains plenty of blemishes, some of them, by-the-bye, wilful ones,
as the writer will presently show; not one of these, however, has been
detected and pointed out; but the best passages in the book, indeed
whatever was calculated to make the book valuable, have been assailed
with abuse and misrepresentation. The duty of the true critic is to play
the part of a leech, and not of a viper. Upon true and upon malignant
criticism there is an excellent fable by the Spaniard Iriarte. The viper
says to the leech, "Why do people invite your bite, and flee from mine?"
"Because," says the leech, "people receive health from my bite, and
poison from yours." "There is as much difference," says the clever
Spaniard, "between true and malignant criticism, as between poison and
medicine." Certainly a great many meritorious writers have allowed
themselves to be poisoned by malignant criticism; the writer, however, is
not one of those who allow themselves to be poisoned by pseudo-critics;
no! no! he will rather hold them up by their tails, and show the
creatures wriggling, blood and foam streaming from their broken jaws.
First of all, however, he will notice one of their objections. "The book
isn't true," say they. Now one of the principal reasons with those that
have attacked Lavengro for their abuse of it is, that it is particularly
true in one instance, namely, that it exposes their own nonsense, their
love o