Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve was perhaps the greatest critic in an epoch rightly called the age of criticism. Sainte-Beuve is one of those authors who makes one regret that there is no discipline devoted to historical time and motion studies. For Sainte-Beuve, who early foresaw that literature would be his life, it was important to associate himself with melancholy, because it was traditionally attributed to members of the thinking elite. The more insecure politics and the more opaque the general power relations in human society become, the greater importance literature takes on for Sainte-Beuve. The instrument creating order is criticism. Revenge and retribution are its methods. When Sainte-Beuve discusses literary criticism, it is conspicuous that his language is strongly moulded by metaphors from the sphere of law. Sainte-Beuve's description of literature and criticism as work, exertion and strain always has a theological colouring.