Note 268 — Chapter V · ÆSTHETICS AND THEIR INFLUENCE.

For Vico’s æsthetic, see, in addition to Professor Flint’s admirable Vico (Edinburgh, 1882), the very interesting Estetica of Signor Benedetto Croce (Part II. chap. v. pp. 228-243: Milan, Palermo, and Naples, 1902). This chapter, with some earlier ones, had been printed separately as a specimen the year before. I owe copies of both, with one of a still earlier series on La Critica Letteraria (Rome, 1896), to Signor Croce’s kindness; and the drift of the last named, which condensescondenses the inesattezza of the term “literary criticism,” had itself prepared me for the disapproval (not unmixed) which he expresses of the first volume of this work as “deprived of method and determinate object.” But as I still see, or seem to see, my own object quite clearly defined before me, as I have found no fault in the compass which I use, and feel the helm of my method quite solid and obedient in my hand, I fear I must hold my course all the same. I shall only say that the sketch of criticism or æsthetic before Vico which precedes the chapter above referred to, shows remarkable knowledge and faculty of statement.