Page:Literary studies by Joseph Jacobs.djvu/15

 INTRODUCTION

first few days after a great writer's death are critical for his reputation. Then for the first time we realise all that he has been to us, all that he has done for us. We can for the first time speak of his whole work with little fear of the surprises that genius has often in store for the critic who dares to be prophetic. We can speak out our full thought of him, if for no other reason, because what we say cannot by any chance come before him. Above all, he has ceased to be a person, and we can treat more simply and directly of his spiritual influence. At the same time we that speak are those who have come under his spell in his lifetime and express the feelings of his contemporaries without any of the disturbing influences which later revelations or the modification of the Zeitgeist produce on the appeal he may have for after-times. We alone can say what he has been to us whom he addressed.

It has chanced during the past ten years that I have been called upon to give on behalf of the

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