What according to Eliot is the most important qualification of a critic?
Eliot has presented his views about the qualifications and functions of a critic. While speaking about the qualifications of a critic, Eliot says that the first and the most important qualification of a critic is that he must have a very highly developed sense of fact. The value of a practitioner's criticism lies in the fact that he is dealing with facts he understands.
Therefore, he can help us to understand them. The sense of fact is something very slow to develop. Eliot thinks that there is a large part of criticism which seeks to interpret an author and his work. However, most of this interpretation is not interpretation at all. It is mere fiction.
The critic gives his impressions of the work and so it is false and misleading, Eliot says " It is fairly certain that interpretation is only legitimate when it is not an interpretation at all, but merely putting the render in possession of facts which he would otherwise have missed." According to Eliat, the true critic knows the facts about a work of art and
puts them before his readers simply and easily. Here 'by facts, Eliot means various technical aspects of a work of art. Comparison and analysis are the two chief tools of a critic. A critic is required to use them with care and Intelligence. Comparison and analysis can be possible only when the critic knows the facts about the works which are to be compared and analysed.
These facts include the technical elements like the structure, content, and theme of the work. A critic should not be a slave of facts. A critic is required to concentrate on the text, compare and analyse but he should never stop to trivialities or empty hair-splitting.
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