SIR,—I protest (and I am sure I may do so
in the name of all my colleagues reviewed en bloc in your issue of the 28th nit.) against this sentence of the reviewer : " The antithesis of minor poetry is not great poetry, but simply poetry." Sir, verses that are not poetry are not worthy of review at all, even by a minor reviewer ; nor is this habit to be com- mended of attaching a facile label to a work of art, under pretence that it is a discrimination, when, in reality, it is
merely a disparagement. If the thing be a work of art at all, it is worthy of discussion ; if it be not, it is worthy of nothing. Very little critical elucidation is gained by com- paring artist with artist; and I notice that in music and painting this is rarely done. It is not said of Wagner that he is minor because he is not so great as Bach, nor of Sullivan because he is not so great as Wagner. And a similar avoidance of useless comparison obtains in painting. All poets are minores who are not equal to Homer, Dante, or Shakespeare ; but then they were not majores, but mazirni.
—I am, Sir, &c., FRANCIS COUTTS. White's.
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