Will They Be Critics?

In their passion for knowledge, will they have to go further in daring and painful attempts than the sensitive and pampered taste of a democratic century can approve of? There is no doubt. These coming ones will be least able to dispense with the serious and not unscrupulous qualities which distinguish the critic from the skeptic. They will rather have little faith in truth, bringing with it such revels for the feelings. And if anyone could look into their inmost heart, he would not easily find therein the intention to reconcile Christian sentiments, with antique taste, or even with modern parliamentarism. Even the great Chinaman of Königsberg was only a great critic.