Preface to World Literature

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JOHNSON said of Burke, ‘His stream of mind is perpetual’; and the remark might with equal justice apply to Professor Guérard. It is seldom one finds the knowledge of the professional scholar communicated with the gusto of the amateur, but in this book learning, humanity, and grace of writing blend in a most satisfying meal to the mental palate. We lack only the added mellowness and stimulus which the wine of literature itself provides. For this is the book of a teacher, and its value is not as a Preface (as such its 500 pages would be daunting to the stoutest heart) but as a running commentary and discussion on topics arising perpetually in the study of actual works of art. Starting from the three guiding principles of the essential unity of mankind, the uniqueness of the individual, and the variable and limited nature of abstract thought, Professor Guerard discusses standards of value, periods and genres, and critical approaches. Always he is concerned less with theoretical classifications than with the realities of literary experience; and always he is an illustration of Matthew Arnold’s definition of the cultured mind, ‘turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits.’