The ideas and opinions expressed in the following little paper must not be taken to be more than my own personal opinions and deductions, guided I hope by some sense of the general canons that are true of all great Art, and helped I hope by an enthusiasm which does its utmost to see the good and the beautiful, rather than to spy out the weaknesses and faults. But before all else, these ideas and opinions are based on a sympathy that is one of those indescribable operations of the sentiments and emotions that can only be traced to affinity or inborn predilection. To allow this affinity to influence one's artistic judgments is sometimes held to be an evidence of bias, and consequently to show a state of mind the reverse of critical and even prejudiced; but as without the emotional attitude one can have no enthusiasm, and without enthusiasm true appreciation is impossible, so it has always seemed obvious to me that true artistic criticism can only be of the constructive or synthetic type; seizing that which is good in a work and holding it up to the more general gaze.