42 The Future Poetry
surroundings, all that “created” the man and his work, — as if
there were not something in him apart from these which made
all the difference, something that made him a man apart and
not like others. It is supposed that out of this elaborate scientific
study the right estimate of his poetry will arise. But even the
right historical or psychological understanding of him need not
inevitably arise out of this method; for we may very easily read
into him and his work things which may perhaps have been there
in front of him or around him, but never really got inside him.
And the right estimate of his work we certainly shall not form if
we bring in so much that is accidental and unessential to cloud
our free and direct impression. Rather the very opposite is the
true method of appreciation; we have to go straight to the poet
and his poem for all we need essentially to know about them, —
we shall get there all that we really want for any true aesthetic or
poetic purpose. Afterwards we can go elsewhere, if we like, for
any minor elucidations or rummage about laboriously to satisfy
our scientific and historical curiosity. In this more natural order
things accidental are much more likely to fall into their right
place and the freshness and authenticity of our poetic appre-
ciation have some chance of remaining unobscured and still
vibrant. But quite apart from its external and therefore unreal
method, there is a truth in the historical theory of criticism which
is of real help towards grasping something that is important and
even essential, if not for our poetic appreciation, yet for our
intellectual judgment of a poet and his work.
In poetry, as in everything else that aims at perfection, there
are always two elements, the eternal true substance and the
limitations and accidents brought in by the time element. The
first alone really and always matters, and it is that which must
determine our definitive appreciation, our absolute verdict, or
rather our essential response to poetry. A soul expressing the
eternal spirit of Truth and Beauty through some of the infinite
variations of beauty, with the word for its instrument, that is,
after all, what the poet is, and it is to a similar soul in us seeking
the same spirit and responding to it that he makes his appeal.
It is when we can get this response at its purest and in its most