The strongest party had the
sailor, and the strongest party has almost invariably the writer of
the present day.
CHAPTER IX
Pseudo-Critics.
A certain set of individuals calling themselves critics have
attacked Lavengro with much virulence and malice. If what they
call criticism had been founded on truth, the author would have had
nothing to say. The book contains plenty of blemishes, some of
them, by the bye, wilful ones, as the writer will presently show;
not one of these, however, has been detected and pointed out; but
the best passages in the book, indeed whatever was calculated to
make the book valuable, have been assailed with abuse and
misrepresentation. The duty of the true critic is to play the part
of a leech, and not of a viper. Upon true and upon malignant
criticism there is an excellent fable by the Spaniard Iriarte. The
viper says to the leech, "Why do people invite your bite, and flee
from mine?" "Because," says the leech, "people receive health from
my bite, and poison from yours." "There is as much difference,"
says the clever Spaniard, "between true and malignant criticism, as
between poison and medicine." Certainly a great many meritorious
writers have allowed themselves to be poisoned by malignant
criticism; the writer, however, is not one of those who allow
themselves to be poisoned by pseudo-critics; no! no! he will rather
hold them up by their tails, and show the creatures wriggling,
blood and foam streaming from their broken jaws.
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