f the
profoundest, widest interpretation of life the world has known. Such
art as this comes closest to the earth and extends farthest into
infinity, "beyond the reaches of our souls."

But there is another order of art, more immediately the product of
local conditions, the personal expression of a distinctive
individuality, phrased in a language of less scope and currency, and
limited as to its content in the range of its appeal. These lesser works
have their place; they can minister to us in some moment of need
and at some point in our development. Because of their limitations,
however, their effectiveness can be furthered by interpretation. A
man more sensitive than we to the special kind of beauty which they
embody and better versed in their language, can discover to us a
significance and a charm in them to which we have not penetrated.
To help us to the fullest enjoyment of the great things and to a more
enlightened and juster appreciation of the lesser works is the service
of criticism.

We do not wholly possess an experience until, having merged
ourselves in it, we then react upon it and become conscious of its
significance. A novel, a play, a picture interests us, and we surrender
to the enjoyment of the moment. Afterwards we think about our
pleasure, defining the nature of the experience and analyzing the
means by which it was produced, the subject of the work and the
artist's method of treating it. It may be that we tell our pleasure to a
friend, glad also perhaps to hear his opinion of the matter. The
impulse is natural; the practice is helpful. And herein lies the origin
of criticism. In so far as an appreciator does not rest in his
immediate enjoyment of a work of art, but seeks to account for his
pleasure, to trace the sources of it, to establish the reasons for it, and
to define its quality, so far he becomes a critic. As every man who
perceives beauty in nature and takes it up into his own life is
potentially an artist, so every man is a critic in the measure that he
reasons about his enjoyment. The critical processes, therefore, are an
essential part of our total experience of art, and criticism may be an
aid to appreciation.

The function of criticism has been variously understood through the
centuries of its practice. Early modern criticism, harking back to the
method of Aristotle, concerned itself with the form of a work of art.
From the usage of classic writers it deduced certain "rules" of
com