while. Here he is at odds with those who cry
aloud for a slashing criticism that shall free the
land of humbugs and pretenders and quacks.
But he is in agreement with the practice of all
the foremost critics of the past: he is in agreement
with the formal theory of the foremost critic of
our century. Goethe confessed that he was
"more and more convinced that whenever one
has to vent an opinion on the actions or on the
writings of others, unless this be done from a
certain one-sided enthusiasm, or from a loving
interest in the person or the work, the result is
hardly worth gathering up. Sympathy and
enjoyment in what we see are, in fact, the only
realities.

( 1899)

-292-