oves with age. But of course anybody is at liberty to say, "Only, in
both cases, when it is good to begin with."

[200] I suppose this was what attracted Mr. Hearn; but, as I have said,
I do not know his book itself.

[201] I do not know how many of the users of the catchword "purely
decorative," as applied to Moore, knew what they meant by it; but if
they meant what I have just said, I have no quarrel with them.

[202] Yet even inside poetry not so very much before 1830.

[203] Of course I know what a dangerous word this is; how often people
who have not a glimmering of it themselves deny it to others; and how it
is sometimes seen in mere horseplay, often confounded with "wit" itself,
and generally "taken in vain." But one must sometimes be content with
[Greek: phoneenta] or [Greek: phonanta] (the choice is open, but I
prefer the latter) [Greek: synetoisi], and take the consequences of them
with the [Greek: asynetoi].

[204] Some would allow it to Plautus, but I doubt; and even Martial did
not draw as much of it from Spanish soil as must have been latent
there--unless the Goths absolutely imported it. Perhaps the nearest
approach in him is the sudden turn when the obliging Phyllis, just as he
is meditating with what choice and costly gifts he shall reward her
varied kindnesses, anticipates him by modestly asking, with the sweetest
preliminary blandishments, for a jar of wine (xii. 65).

[205] La Fontaine may be desiderated. His is certainly one of the most
_humouresque_ of wits; but whether he has pure humour I am not sure.

[206] This is an exception to the rule of _tout passe_, if not of _tout
casse_. You can still buy avanturine wax; only, like all waxes, except
red and black, it seals very badly, and makes "kisses" in a most untidy
fashion. Avanturine should be left to the original stone--to peat-water
running over pebbles with the sun on it--and to eyes.

[207] I once knew an incident which might have figured in these scenes,
and which would, I think, have pleased Theo. But it happened just after
his own death, in the dawn of the aesthetic movement. A man, whom we may
call A, visited a friend, say B, who was doing his utmost to be in the
mode. A had for some time been away from the centre; and B showed him,
in hopes to impress, the blue china the Japanese mats and fans, the
rush-bottomed chairs, the Morris paper and curtains, the peacock
feathers, etc. But A looked coldly on them and said, "Where is your
b