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 death? 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