CHAPTER XIX.
ART AND LITERARY CRITICISM.
A judgment balanced, and a heart sincere,
To pick my faults, and set me in the way
When I have miss'd the beautiful, the true;
Not some coarse blatant, with outpour of words,—
All foul extremes, that reek of prejudice
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Nor subtle flatt'rer, with a diction smooth,
Trimming to all, as changed occasion prompts.
—Meter.
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riticism of art and literature in all their forms has grown with the development of the modern Press, the result being that this branch of journalistic work has now for a long time past been placed in the hands of men specially qualified for dealing with particular departments—as painting, music, the drama, or literature respectively. The scant space devoted to artistic matters of all kinds in the newspapers at the beginning of the century is in striking contrast to the extended notices now given of everything relating to the Muses.
There is an anecdote told of Wilkie to the effect tha t he and his friends actually danced with glee when one of his pictures was honored with bare mention in the press of the day. British art received, indeed, but scant encouragement or criticism from the newspapers till the late Samuel Carter Hall, through the Art Journal, stimulated public interest in art, and it was then discovered that description and criticism of new paintings had an interest for newspaper readers. Dramatic criticism was of a very insignificant description till Hazlitt's masterly work stimulated the desire for something more interesting than a mere narration of the cast. It was some time subsequent
