We have in Mr Irving Babbitt's Rousseau and Romanticism to deal with a closely argued and copiously¹ documented indictment² of the modern mind. We gather that this book is but the latest of several books in which the author has gradually developed his theme, and we regret exceedingly that the preceding volumes have not fallen into our hands, because whatever may be our final attitude towards the author's conclusions, we cannot but regard Rousseau and Romanticism as masterly. Its style is, we admit, at times rather harsh and crabbed³, but the critical thought which animates⁴ it is of a kind so rare that we are almost impelled⁵ to declare that it is the only book of modern criticism which can be compared for clarity and depth of thought with Mr Santayana's Three Philosophical⁶ Poets.

By endeavouring to explain the justice of that verdict we shall more easily give an indication of the nature and scope of Professor Babbitt's achievement. We think that it would be easy to show that in the last generation—we will go no further back for the moment, though our author's arraignment⁷ reaches at least a century earlier—criticism has imperceptibly given way to a different activity which we may call appreciation⁸. The emphasis has been laid upon the uniqueness of the individual, and the unconscious or avowed⁹ aim of the modern 'critic' has been to persuade us to understand, to sympathise with and in the last resort to enter into the whole psychological process which culminated¹⁰ in the

分享到：