been so directly
polemical and controversial, that it has so ill accomplished, in England,
its best spiritual work; which is to keep man from a self-satisfaction
which is retarding and vulgarizing, to lead him toward perfection, by
making his mind dwell upon what is excellent in itself, and the absolute
beauty and fitness of things. A polemical practical criticism makes men
blind even to the ideal imperfection of their practice, makes them
willingly assert its ideal perfection, in order the better to secure it
against attack; and clearly this is narrowing and baneful for them. If
they were reassured on the practical side, speculative considerations of
ideal perfection they might be brought to entertain, and their spiritual
horizon would thus gradually widen....

It will be said that it is a very subtle and indirect action which I am
thus prescribing for criticism, and that, by embracing in this manner the
Indian virtue of detachment and abandoning the sphere of practical life,
it condemns itself to a slow and obscure work. Slow and obscure it may be,
but it is the only proper work of criticism. The mass of mankind will
never have any ardent zeal for seeing things as they are; very inadequate
ideas will always satisfy them. On these inadequate ideas reposes, and
must repose, the general practice of the world. That is as much as saying
that whoever sets himself to see things as they are will find himself one
of a very small circle; but it is only by this small circle resolutely
doing its own work that adequate ideas will ever get current at all. The
rush and roar of practical life will always have a dizzying and attracting
effect upon the most collected spectator, and tend to draw him into its
vortex; most of all will this be the case where that life is so powerful
as it is in England. But it is only by remaining collected, and refusing
to lend himself to the point of view of the practical man, that the critic
can do the practical man any service; and it is only by the greatest
sincerity in pursuing his own course, and by at last convincing even the
practical man of his sincerity, that he can escape misunderstandings which
perpetually threaten him.

For the practical man is not apt for fine distinctions, and yet in these
distinctions truth and the highest culture greatly find their account. But
it is not easy to lead a practical man--unless you reassure him as to your
practical intentions, you have no chance of leading hi