virtue of being syntheses of the world," says Barzun. To dissect them "scientifically," trying to pry loose their component parts, is to misunderstand them. Works of art are meant to be regarded whole and to nurture mind and spirit.
Barzun perceives a mood of futility in the academic "kingdom of analysis, criticalness, and theory ." Sooner or later, he believes, the "forces of fatigue and boredom" will bring scholars' dominion over cul- ture to an end.
"Freud...