“Good books have always been criticised upon some points adversely. Plato freely criticises Homer. Quintilian criticises Cicero. Cicero criticises Demosthenes. Addison criticises Milton. And in each instance no doubt real faults were pointed out. The most enlightened French critics used to pooh-pooh Shakspere. They did likewise with Dante.”
College students, with all their admiration for the professors under whom they moved through four years of study, have some foibles and defects to report and laugh at; but on the whole they honor the men who made them and led them. The authors of our text-books are our professors. On the whole they have done their work well. It is proper to note their faults and avoid them, but in defending them, and in being proud of them, and in rejoicing in the course of reading which they have provided, we have the endorsement of wise, scholarly and experienced educators.
Finally, let us learn the characteristics of the true critic, and according to the measure of our ability let us seek to possess them:
“A critic must have breadth, accuracy, sympathy, reverence, and love. He must have no partialities, and no aversions. He must not be captious, but just.”
OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.
OUTLINE OF REQUIRED READINGS FOR JUNE.
First Week (ending June 8).—1. “The Mechanism of English,” in The Chautauquan.
2. Sunday Readings for June 7, in The Chautauquan.