Hamlet's Note-Book

Excerpt from Hamlet's Note-Book
It is a serious question whether reviews are of any real advantage to literature. They certainly tend to prevent its direct operation upon the public mind, substituting for consideration, instead of the book itself, an account of it by some more or less competent critic. This account is almost sure to be partial, inadequate, or incorrect, and is often disparaging or hostile. Worst of all, it can be so moulded as to deter the reader from any examination of the work noticed, which may yet be of exceeding value. One remembers the fate of those exquisite early essays of Emerson, - shelved at the booksellers for years by the might of critical verdicts such as would never have emanated from the reading public at large. Doubtless much that is valid can be said in favor of the reviewing system.
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