Butif we ask for masterpieces, where are we to
look? Beerbohm, inhis way, is perfect, but it is not a big way. He wasaffected by
private joys and sorrows, and had no gospel to preachand no learning to
impart.
Birrell on Carlyle and the essay which one may
supposethat Carlyle would have written upon Mr. For therewas always an air of
mystery about him.
Nor did Marlow live entirelywreathed in the smoke
of his own cigars.
So delicate a balance is
easilydisturbed.
He has clearly made the best of hiscircumstances
and not the worst.
We are sharply cut off fromour predecessors. Nor
has any generation more need thanours to cherish its contemporaries.
All honour, of course, to those whohave sacrificed
their immortality to set the house in order. The next day we read: For the rest one
can only say that if Mr.
Think your own thoughts,he seems to say, and speak
them as plainly as you can.
The temptation to decorate is great wherethe theme
may be of the slightest. Great critics, if they are not themselves great poets,are
bred from the profusion of the age. And to all this, too, the critics generously
agree. Great critics, if they are not themselves great poets,are bred from the
profusion of the age. That is the explanation; that is why they differ. Ladies and
gentlemen talk together, and some things, of course, arenot said.
Ladies and gentlemen talk together, and some
things, of course, arenot said.