ABSTRACT
Ioften try to remember at what exact date, and by whose agency, the following theory of criticism began to be first put forth. “A critic,” it was urged, “is not there to express on a work of art his own impression. He is there to find out what it is that the artist intended, and to criticise the work in the light of the artist’s own intention.” It is a comfortable theory for both the more lazy and innocent kind of critic, and for the artist to whom his trade is of more importance than his development. The theory leads straight to the kind of writing that is not criticism, but an unavowed form of the interview, or of the cosy insinuations, pestilently peppered with patriotism, with which the agents-in-advance of our dry-goods and other stores are wont to “chat us,” daily, “into a bronze.”
