that forbidden path which leads to philosophy. Even the term
"ontology," that word of awe, is now occurring in the works of
literary critics. Furthermore, the domain of German philosophy,
which was carefully shunned by academic scholars of the older
generation, is now being increasingly explored by literary critics. ¹
The notion that a view of poetry implies a view of life, and a
view of life implies a view of the world--that is, a philosophy--
is no longer as strange as it once was.

At the same time, one general principle has been affirmed by
a large number of critics, so much as to become almost a uni-
versally accepted doctrine. That is the independent status of
poetic creation. Poetry--or imaginative writing in general, in-
cluding the drama and the novel--stands by itself. It is not
subordinate or subservient to any other human activity, but it
produces itself according to its own laws. It should therefore
be judged by principles drawn from its own nature, and not
from those drawn from the nature of ethics, or of science, or
of politics, or of philosophical or religious knowledge, or any
other human ideal or activity, however desirable. This general
conviction assumes several individual forms and variations. Some
formulate it as the "autonomy" of poetry, some as the "autotelic"
character of poetry, others find yet other ways of asserting it.
Poetry seems to have won its right to independence. The ques-
tion still remains, upon what grounds is this freedom to be
founded, what are the ultimate principles involved in it, and
how do they bear upon the issues of practical criticism.

It is here that the work of Benedetto Croce may be of help
to contemporary criticism. For the essence of his aesthetic is
the autonomy of the poetic faculty, and the essence of his
criticism is the practical application of this principle. Croce has
explored to the last degree the ultimate implications of this
critical doctrine, and at the same time made aesthetics a highly
developed instrument for the critical evaluation of literature.
For him, critical theory existed only for the sake of critical
practice. While investigating the implications of literary judg-
ment and its relationship with other forms of reflective thought,
he has shown extensively how much light is thrown by such

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