week. Under the heading, "More Impressions" (by
Oscuro Wildgoose) I find this:

"My little fancy's clogged with gush,
My little lyre is false in tone,
And when I lyrically moan,
I hear the impatient critic's 'Tush!'

"But I've 'Impressions.' These are grand!
Mere dabs of words, mere blobs of tint,
Displayed on canvas or in print,
Men laud, and think they understand.

"A smudge of brown, a smear of yellow,
No tale, no subject,--there you are!
Impressions!--and the strangest far
Is--that the bard's a clever fellow."

A little later these lines appeared:

"My languid lily, my lank limp lily,
My long, lithe lily-love, men may grin--
Say that I'm soft and supremely silly--
What care I, while you whisper still;
What care I, while you smile? Not a pin!
While you smile, while you whisper--
'Tis sweet to decay!
I have watered with chlorodine, tears of chagrin,
The churchyard mould I have planted thee in,
Upside down, in an intense way,
In a rough red flower-pot, _sweeter than sin_,
That I bought for a halfpenny, yesterday!"

The italics are mine; but the suggestion was always implicit; yet this
constant wind of puritanic hatred blowing against him helped instead
of hindering his progress: strong men are made by opposition; like
kites they go up against the wind.

CHAPTER VII

"Believe me, child, all the gentleman's misfortunes arose
from his being educated at a public
school...."--FIELDING.

In England success is a plant of slow growth. The tone of good
society, though responsive to political talent, and openly, eagerly
sensitive to money-making talent, is contemptuous of genius and rates
the utmost brilliancy of the talker hardly higher than the feats of an
acrobat. Men are obstinate, slow, trusting a bank-balance rather than
brains; and giving way reluctantly to sharp-witted superiority. The
road up to power or influence in England is full of pitfalls and far
too arduous for those who have neither high birth nor wealth to help
them. The natural inequality of men instead of being mitigated by law
or custom is everywhere strengthened and increased by a thousand
effete social distinctions. Even in the best class where a certain
easy familiarity reigns there is circle above circle, and the summits
are isolated by heredity.

The conditions of English society