For the rest, he
alluded to Goldschmidt's weak points, even if in somewhat too superior a
manner, and without laying stress upon his great artistic importance,
with leniency and good-will.
But if, in other things he touched upon, he had an eye for essentials,
this failed him sadly when the letter proceeded to a characterisation of
the addressee, in which he mixed up true and false in inextricable
confusion. Amongst other things, he wrote:
Here, I doubtless touch upon a point that is distinctive of your
criticism. It is an absolute beauty worship. With that you can quickly
traverse our little literature and benefit no one greatly; for the poet
is only benefited by the man who approaches him with affection and from
his own standpoint; the other he does not understand, and the public
will, likely enough, pass with you through this unravelling of the
thousand threads, and believe they are growing; but no man or woman who
is sound and good lays down a criticism of this nature without a feeling
of emptiness.
I chanced to read one of your travel descriptions which really became a
pronouncement upon some of the greatest painters. It was their nature in
their works (not their history or their lives so much as their natural
dispositions) that you pointed out,--also the influence of their time
upon them, but this only in passing; and you compared these painters,
one with another.
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