In reality, it takes another genius, a critical one, to appreciate it adequately. In this respect, foreign literary criticism has been relatively more just to Petőfi. In all the countries of Europe and America, Petőfi’s name has been steadily spreading, and numerous attempts at translations of his works have been made in both hemispheres. We do not think that Petőfi is untranslatable. His very objectiveness renders him more fit for free and yet faithful translations than, for instance, Arany (see page 194). Another reason is that Petőfi lays less stress on form and metre than other poets of an equal rank. He who fully seizes the beauty of the poetic subject-matter in Petőfi’s poems can render them more or less adequately in any language. More, however, than by translation might be achieved by Hungarian artists who by picturing the paintable features of Petőfi’s poems, would contribute most potently to a general appreciation of his genius. There are hundreds of perfect pictures to be taken from his works, provided the painter takes them from him in the way in which Petőfi took them from nature. CHAPTER XXVIII. Outside Hungary, the name of John Arany is seldom heard; and western readers will be astonished to hear that Arany is considered by many of the best known Magyar critics the greatest of the Hungarian poets. Petőfi has never quite pleased the professors of æsthetics and poetry in the various universities and “_academies_” of Hungary; and there being no Magyar Saint Beuves or August Schlegels, to guide, with tact sustained by learning, and learning eased by tact, the tastes and literary opinions of the professorial minds in Hungary, it is not rare to hear and read of Arany as the greatest poetic genius of the Magyars. We hasten to add, that we readily bow to the greatness and charm, and still more to the merits of Arany. He is a great poet indeed. Nearly every one of his numerous ballads, epics and smaller poems is replete with the glamour of true poetry. In point of language he is, no doubt, the most idiomatic and richest of all Hungarian writers. Yet, with all these gifts and excellencies, he is not equal to Petőfi. Reaching, as he did, an age nearly three times as protracted as that of Petőfi, he could yet not, through any stretch of time or effort, attain to powers which have been bestowed upon very few poets. Petőfi ranks with the world’s greatest poets; Arany ranks only with the great poets of Hungary. To the strictly Magyar Jingo, as well as to the Magyar professor, Arany may appear greater even than Petőfi; we hope to show that his genius is of a nature at once different from and smaller than that of the incomparable Alexander.