GYULAY now living in Budapest as an editor and retired University professor. He is a polemical writer and is opposed to luke warm compromise. Many have been· angry with bim but all esteem bim. His importance is perhaps best indicated by the fact that nearly all the general ly accepted literary estimates of to-day are deríved from him, although many of his opinions wh en first expressed seemed paradoxical. Gyulay· introduced perfect sincerity into criticism. He hc!ds such a high opinion of the importance of truth and of the functions of criticism that he is always veraciaus and sometimes merciless. His convictions are so strong that he is ready to be their martyr. While many of his contemporaries regarded the eminent leader General Arthur Görgey, who was compelled to capitulate at Világos in 1849, as a traitor, Gyulay defended bim, and on the other hand, he attacked the idols of the people, Kossuth and Jókai, or at least assailed their weak points. In an age when all men, even the p roudest, bow their knee to the great monarch, public opinion, he often seeks not popularity but almost unpopularity. He is always ready to expose a writer's vanity or shallowness. A modest man himself, he is shocked at the chartatanism and the bragging self-esteem of some of his contem poraries. He has always been the champion of good traditio ns against th e too vehement reformers who would introduce foreign elements into Hungari an literature, and yet when the " orthologists endeavoured to annibilate the results of the language reform, it was Gyulay who for a decade defended the valuable fruit of Kazinczy's labours. His eritical acuteness is especially revealed when he is examining the composition of a lyric poem, the element of terror in a tragedy and the reality of the characters in a work of fiction. But this genius for criticism has its
