Book excerpt: Excerpt from Mutual Criticism Criticism is no new thing under the sun. It is at least as old as art, literature and public life. The writers, artists and orators of early Greece and Rome felt its power. The' authors whose works now constitute the classics of English litera ture ran its gauntlet as truly as any Bohemian of our time. The terrible castigations which public men receive to-day are not more severe than those administered in the days of Demosthenes and Cicero. Only Criticism, calling to its aid every modern means of communication, has become more omnipresent. But mutual criticism systematized as a means of culture - is a new institution, and of such value, in the Opinion of those who have most thoroughly tested it, that its origin, philosophy, manner of application and results, deserve to be more gener ally known. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.