of Samuel Crisp. Men like him have their proper place, and it is
a most important one, in the Commonwealth of Letters. It is by
the judgment of such men that the rank of authors is finally
determined. It is neither to the multitude, nor to the few who
are gifted with great creative genius, that we are to look for
sound critical decisions. The multitude, unacquainted with the
best models, are captivated by whatever stuns and dazzles them.
They deserted Mrs. Siddons to run after Master Betty; and they
now prefer, we have no doubt, Jack Sheppard to Van Artevelde. A
man of great original genius, on the other hand, a man who has
attained to mastery in some high walk of art, is by no means to
be implicitly trusted as a judge of the performances of others.
The erroneous decisions pronounced by such men are without
number. It is commonly supposed that jealousy makes them unjust.
But a more creditable explanation may easily be found. The very
excellence of a work shows that some of the faculties of the
author have been developed at the expense of the rest - for it is
not given to the human intellect to expand itself widely in all
directions at once and to be at the same time gigantic and
well-proportioned. Whoever becomes pre-eminent in any art, nay,
in any style of art, generally does so by devoting himself with
intense and exclusive enthusiasm to the pursuit of one kind of
excellence. His perception of other
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kinds of excellence is too often impaired. Out of his own
department, he blames at random, and is far less to be trusted
than the mere connoisseur, who produces nothing, and whose
business is only to judge and enjoy. One painter is
distinguished by his exquisite finishing. He toils day after day