In this expository essay the author refutes the Realist cultural and artistic movement which they believe might better be termed "literalist," for who is to say that what is physical and material is the only reality? The author notes that this trend is often explained by the Beconian movement towards practical knowledge, but argues that inductive systems serve the sciences better than the arts. What results is, "a fastidious and morbid admiration of petty, aimless details . . . serious and active evil," which widens class distinctions and fails to assist in the pursuit of higher forms of goodness, beauty, and truth.
Mar 1885
