th? Who praised Tennyson's poems until Tennyson was quite an
old man? Nay, I am afraid some of us have laughed at those who
endeavoured to ask our attention to what we called the daubs of the one
or the doggerel of the other. {5}This, I think, should teach us not even
to attempt to criticize until we are sure that we appreciate. Yet what a
vast amount of criticism there is in the world which errs (like Dr.
Johnson) from sheer ignorance. When Sir Lucius O'Trigger found fault
with Mrs. Malaprop's language she naturally resented such ignorant
criticism. "If there is one thing more than another upon which I pride
myself, it is the use of my oracular tongue and a nice derangement of
epitaphs." It was absurd to have one's English criticized by any
Irishman. It is said that "it's a pity when lovely women talk of things
that they don't understand"; but I am afraid that men are equally given
to the same vice. I have heard men give the most confident opinions upon
subjects which they don't in the least understand, which nobody expects
them to understand, nor have they had any opportunity for acquiring the
requisite knowledge. But I suppose an Englishman is nothing if he is not
dictatorial, and has a right to say that the pictures in the Louvre are
"orrid" or that the Colosseum is a "himposition." "I don't know what
they mean by Lucerne being the Queen of the Lakes," said a Yankee to me,
"but I calc'late Lake St. George is a doocid deal bigger." The criticism
was true as far as it went, but the man had no conception of beauty.

"Each might his several province well command
Would all but stoop to what they understand."

The receipt given for an essay on Chinese Metaphysics was, look out China
under the letter C and metaphysics under the letter M, and combine your
information. "Would you mind telling me, sir, if the Cambridge boat
keeps time or not to-day?" said a man on the banks of the Thames to me.
He explained that he was a political-meeting reporter on the staff of a
penny paper, and the sporting reporter was ill. Sometimes the want of
appreciation appears in a somewhat remarkable manner, as where a really
good performance is praised for its blemishes and not for its merits.
This may be done from a desire to appear singular or from ignorance. The
popular estimate is generally wrong from want of appreciation. The
majority of people praise what is not worthy of praise and dislike what
is. So that it is almo