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Rh nor could his view stop short of the distant horizon. In a measure, this comprehensiveness is part of all criticism, but with De Vere it was a distinct characteristic. It almost became the measure of his "personal equation"; and it goes far toward explaining why he could so thoroughly interpret Spenser or Wordsworth, while of Patmore's poetry he should be merely appreciative but not illuminating. De Vere was unusually quick to recognize traces of a solid, universal greatness; he was less sensitive to beauties of an exotic or esoteric character.

These words, loved by De Vere, and chosen as the text of his Essays Chiefly on Poetry, strike the keynote of his attitude toward letters and toward life. His criticism as a whole was overwhelmingly constructive; and while he abhorred "sensual" or "sensational" literature, materialistic and unsound philosophies, and whatever wars against the soul's life, he still—and to the end—"enjoyed praising as inferior men enjoy sneering."