snowy mountain in Nova
Zembla. There Momus found her extended in her den upon the spoils of
numberless volumes, half devoured. At her right hand sat Ignorance, her
father and husband, blind with age; at her left Pride, her mother,
dressing her up in the scraps of paper herself had torn. About her
played her children Noise and Impudence, Dulness and Vanity, Pedantry and
Ill-manners. The goddess herself had claws like a cat. Her head, ears,
and voice resembled those of an ass." Bulwer (Lord Lytton) flew out
against his critics, and was well laughed at by Thackeray for his pains.
Poets are known as the _genus irritabile_, and I do not know that prose
writers, artists, or musicians are less susceptible. Most of us will
remember Sheridan's _Critic_--

Sneer: "I think it wants incident."

Sir Fretful: "Good Heavens, you surprise me! Wants incident! I am only
apprehensive that the incidents are too crowded."

Dangle: "If I might venture to suggest anything, it is that the interest
rather falls off in the fifth act."

Sir Fretful: "Rises, I believe you mean, sir."

Mrs. Dangle: "I did not see a fault in any part of the play from the
beginning to the end."

Sir Fretful: "Upon my soul the women are the best judges after all."

In short, no one objects to a favourable criticism, and almost every one
objects to an unfavourable one. All men ought, no doubt, to be thankful
for a just criticism; but I am afraid they are not. As a result, to
criticize is to be unpopular. Nevertheless, it is better to be unpopular
than to be untruthful.

"The truth once out,--and wherefore should we lie?--
The Queen of Midas slept, and so can I."

I am going to do a rather dreadful thing. I am going to divide criticism
into six heads. By the bye, I am not sure that sermons now-a-days are
any better than they used to be in the good old times, when there were
always three heads at least to every sermon. Criticism should be--1.
Appreciative. 2. Proportionate. 3. Appropriate. 4. Strong. 5. Natural.
6. _Bona fide_.

1. _Criticism should be appreciative_.

By this I mean, not that critics should always praise, but that they
should understand. They should see the thing as it is and comprehend it.
This is the rock upon which most criticisms fail--want of knowledge. In
reading the lives of great men, how often are we struck with the want of
appreciation of their fellows. Who admired Turner's pictures until
Turner's dea