INTRODUCTION Matthew Arnold published the first series of his Essays in Criticism in 1865. He died in 1888. A few months later, a second series of Essays in Criticism was published. Between the issue of these two series a generation elapsed. Now, in 1910, a third and last series of Essays in Criticism, appears, after an equal lapse of time. Of the high critical value of these essays, Time has been the best and kindest judge. To us, as we read them to-day, such essays as those On the Modern Element in Literature and on Obermann have an abiding and prophetic truth which raises them at once to the plane of classic criticism. To become classic, criticism must hold a flawless mirror up to nature, and interpret adequately what that mir-/ ror reflects. Judged by this standard, the third series of Essays in Criticism suffers no diminution by comparison with its predecessors. In fact, we may surely claim that the essay which opens the volume ranks higher |