At the same time it is also fortunate that every
man has just so much critical power of his own as is necessary for
recognizing the superiority of those who are placed immediately over
him, and for following their lead. This means that the many come in
the end to submit to the authority of the few; and there results that
hierarchy of critical judgments on which is based the possibility of a
steady, and eventually wide-reaching, fame.
The lowest class in the community is quite impervious to the merits
of a great genius; and for these people there is nothing left but the
monument raised to him, which, by the impression it produces on their
senses, awakes in them a dim idea of the man's greatness.
Literary journals should be a dam against the unconscionable
scribbling of the age, and the ever-increasing deluge of bad and
useless books. Their judgments should be uncorrupted, just and
rigorous; and every piece of bad work done by an incapable person;
every device by which the empty head tries to come to the assistance
of the empty purse, that is to say, about nine-tenths of all existing
books, should be mercilessly scourged. Literary journals would then
perform their duty, which is to keep down the craving for writing and
put a check upon the deception of the public, instead of furthering
these evils by a miserable toleration, which plays into the hands of
author and publisher, and robs the reader of his time and his money.
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