epler, I think, it is who praises poverty as the foster-mother of
genius; but Bernard Palissy was nearer the truth when he
said:--_Pauvrete empeche bons esprits de parvenir_ (poverty hinders
fine minds from succeeding). There is no such mortal enemy of genius
as poverty except riches: a touch of the spur from time to time does
good; but a constant rowelling disables. As editor of _The Woman's
World_ Oscar had some money of his own to spend. Though his salary was
only some six pounds a week, it made him independent, and his
editorial work gave him an excuse for not exhausting himself by
writing. For some years after marriage; in fact, till he lost his
editorship, he wrote little and talked a great deal.

During this period we were often together. He lunched with me once or
twice a week and I began to know his method of work. Everything came
to him in the excitement of talk, epigrams, paradoxes and stories; and
when people of great position or title were about him he generally
managed to surpass himself: all social distinctions appealed to him
intensely. I chaffed him about this one day and he admitted the
snobbishness gaily.

"I love even historic names, Frank, as Shakespeare did. Surely
everyone prefers Norfolk, Hamilton and Buckingham to Jones or Smith or
Robinson."

As soon as he lost his editorship he took to writing for the reviews;
his articles were merely the _resume_ of his monologues. After talking
for months at this and that lunch and dinner he had amassed a store of
epigrams and humorous paradoxes which he could embody in a paper for
_The Fortnightly Review_ or _The Nineteenth Century_.

These papers made it manifest that Wilde had at length, as Heine
phrased it, reached the topmost height of the culture of his time and
was now able to say new and interesting things. His _Lehrjahre_ or
student-time may be said to have ended with his editorship. The
articles which he wrote on "The Decay of Lying," "The Critic as
Artist," and "Pen, Pencil and Poison"; in fact, all the papers which
in 1891 were gathered together and published in book form under the
title of "Intentions," had about them the stamp of originality. They
achieved a noteworthy success with the best minds, and laid the
foundation of his fame. Every paper contained, here and there, a happy
phrase, or epigram, or flirt of humour, which made it memorable to the
lover of letters.

They were all, however, conceived and written from the standpoint of
t