Word: parlous
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Dates: during 1896-1896
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...intent is to give some hints and clews to books which are illustrative, whether as the results or the occasion, of altered standards of criticism and aesthetic principles. The author expresses his attitude toward literary criticism as follows: "No one can be more keenly aware than I how parlous a task it is to attempt systematic criticism of the present or near past in literature; but if we are to wait until the world has made up its mind about what it is reading today, it will then be reading something else, and our criticism will always lag superfluous...