by the simplicity and force with
which it expresses sincere emotion, 'Lycidas' would hardly convince us
of Milton's profound sorrow for the death of King, and must be condemned
accordingly. To the purely pictorial or musical effects of a poem
Johnson was nearly blind; but that need not suggest a doubt as to the
sincerity of his love for the poetry which came within the range of his
own sympathies. Every critic is in effect criticising himself as well as
his author; and I confess that to my mind an obviously sincere record of
impressions, however one-sided they may be, is infinitely refreshing, as
revealing at least the honesty of the writer. The ordinary run of
criticism generally implies nothing but the extreme desire of the author
to show that he is open to the very last new literary fashion. I should
welcome a good assault upon Shakespeare which was not prompted by a love
of singularity; and there are half-a-dozen popular idols--I have not the
courage to name them--a genuine attack upon whom I could witness with
entire equanimity, not to say some complacency. If Johnson's blunder in
this case implied sheer stupidity, one can only say that honest
stupidity is a much better thing than clever insincerity or fluent
repetition of second-hand dogmas. But, in fact, this dislike of
'Lycidas,' and a good many instances of critical incapacity might be
added, is merely a misapplication of a very sound principle. The hatred
of cant and humbug and affectation of all vanity is a most salutary
ingredient even in poetical criticism. Johnson, with his natural
ignorance of that historical method, the exaltation of which threatens
to become a part of our contemporary cant, made the pardonable blunder
of supposing that what would have been gross affectation in Gray must
have been affectation in Milton. His ear had been too much corrupted by
the contemporary school to enable him to recognise beauties which would
even have shone through some conscious affectation. He had the rare
courage--for, even then, Milton was one of the tabooed poets--to say
what he thought as forcibly as he could say it; and he has suffered the
natural punishment of plain speaking. It must, of course, be admitted
that a book embodying such principles is doomed to become more or less
obsolete, like his political pamphlets. And yet, as significant of the
writer's own character, as containing many passages of sound judgment,
expressed in forcible language, it is still,