What is the underlying idea of the fourth paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

The temptation, to any man who is interested in ideas and primarily in literature, to put literature into the corner until he cleaned up the whole country first, is almost irresistible. Some persons have succeeded so well in this later profession of setting the house in order, and have attracted so much more attention than Arnold, that we must conclude that it is indeed their proper role, and that they have done well for themselves in laying literature aside.
Not only is the critic tempted outside of criticism. The criticism proper betrays such poverty of ideas and such atrophy of sensibility that men who ought to preserve their critical ability for the improvement of their own creative work are tempted into criticism. This is not to suggest as a corollary to this that the ‘creative’ gift is ‘higher’ than the critical. When one creative mind is better than another, the reason often is that the better is the more critical. But the great bulk of the work of criticism could have been done by minds of the second order, and it is just these minds of the second order that are difficult to find. They are necessary for the rapid circulation of ideas. The periodical press — the ideal literary periodical — is an instrument of transport; and the literary periodical press is dependent upon the existence of a sufficient number of second-order (not ‘second rate,’ the expression is too derogatory) minds to supply its material. These minds are necessary for that ‘current of ideas,’ that ‘society permeated by fresh thought,’ of which Arnold speaks.
It is a perpetual heresy of English to believe that only the first-order mind, the Genius, the Great Man, matters; that he is solitary, and produced best in the least favourable environment, perhaps the Public School; and that it is most likely a sign of inferiority that Paris can show so many minds of the second order. If too much bad verse is published in London, it does not occur to us to raise our standards, to do anything to educate the poetasters; the remedy is, kill them off.
We quite agree that poetry is not a formula. It is part of the business of the critic to preserve tradition — where a good tradition exists. It is part of his business to see literature steadily and to see it whole; and this is eminently to see it not as consecrated by time, but to see it beyond time; to see the best work of our time and the best work of twenty-five hundred years ago with the same eyes. It is part of his business to help the poetaster to understand his own limitations. The poetaster who understands his own limitations will be one of our useful second-order minds; a good minor poet (something which is very rare) or another good critic. As for the first-order minds, when they happen, they will be none the worse off for a ‘current of ideas’; the solitude with which they will always and everywhere be invested is a very different thing from isolation, or a monarchy of death.

Question

Multiple choice

What is the underlying idea of the fourth paragraph?

Directions: The reading passage is divided into four paragraphs. Select, from the options given, part idea of each paragraph and see whether these part ideas, taken together, lead to the main idea of the whole passage.

The temptation, to any man who is interested in ideas and primarily in literature, to put literature into the corner until he cleaned up the whole country first, is almost irresistible. Some persons have succeeded so well in this later profession of setting the house in order, and have attracted so much more attention than Arnold, that we must conclude that it is indeed their proper role, and that they have done well for themselves in laying literature aside.
Not only is the critic tempted outside of criticism. The criticism proper betrays such poverty of ideas and such atrophy of sensibility that men who ought to preserve their critical ability for the improvement of their own creative work are tempted into criticism. This is not to suggest as a corollary to this that the ‘creative’ gift is ‘higher’ than the critical. When one creative mind is better than another, the reason often is that the better is the more critical. But the great bulk of the work of criticism could have been done by minds of the second order, and it is just these minds of the second order that are difficult to find. They are necessary for the rapid circulation of ideas. The periodical press — the ideal literary periodical — is an instrument of transport; and the literary periodical press is dependent upon the existence of a sufficient number of second-order (not ‘second rate,’ the expression is too derogatory) minds to supply its material. These minds are necessary for that ‘current of ideas,’ that ‘society permeated by fresh thought,’ of which Arnold speaks.
It is a perpetual heresy of English to believe that only the first-order mind, the Genius, the Great Man, matters; that he is solitary, and produced best in the least favourable environment, perhaps the Public School; and that it is most likely a sign of inferiority that Paris can show so many minds of the second order. If too much bad verse is published in London, it does not occur to us to raise our standards, to do anything to educate the poetasters; the remedy is, kill them off.
We quite agree that poetry is not a formula. It is part of the business of the critic to preserve tradition — where a good tradition exists. It is part of his business to see literature steadily and to see it whole; and this is eminently to see it not as consecrated by time, but to see it beyond time; to see the best work of our time and the best work of twenty-five hundred years ago with the same eyes. It is part of his business to help the poetaster to understand his own limitations. The poetaster who understands his own limitations will be one of our useful second-order minds; a good minor poet (something which is very rare) or another good critic. As for the first-order minds, when they happen, they will be none the worse off for a ‘current of ideas’; the solitude with which they will always and everywhere be invested is a very different thing from isolation, or a monarchy of death.

It is neither possible nor desirable to have any tether-post of formula to which a work of literature can be tied down.
The primary function of a true critic is to preserve traditions wherever they existed and present them as 'current of ideas.'
It is possible to have minds of both the first-order and the second-order in one individual playing out as poet and critic.
Following traditions preserved over a long period of time may not be just a formula.

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Accepted Answer

In addition to preserving traditions, a critic must see literature in its entirety, not in pieces; and must help the poet understand his own creation.

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