nd pray, if noisily, at least in a more human manner. How with thy
rubrics and dalmatics, and clothwebs and cobwebs, and with thy
stupidities and grovelling baseheartedness, hast thou hidden the
Holiest into all but invisibility!--

'Man of Genius:' O Maecenas Twiddledee, hast thou any notion what a Man
of Genius is? Genius is 'the inspired gift of God.' It is the clearer
presence of God Most High in a man. Dim, potential in all men; in this
man it has become clear, actual. So says John Milton, who ought to be
a judge; so answer him the Voices of all Ages and all Worlds. Wouldst
thou commune with such a one? _Be_ his real peer, then: does that lie
in thee? Know thyself and thy real and thy apparent place, and know
him and his real and his apparent place, and act in some noble
conformity with all that. What! The star-fire of the Empyrean shall
eclipse itself, and illuminate magic-lanterns to amuse grown children?
He, the god-inspired, is to twang harps for thee, and blow through
scrannel-pipes, to soothe thy sated soul with visions of new, still
wider Eldorados, Houri Paradises, richer Lands of Cockaigne? Brother,
this is not he; this is a counterfeit, this twangling, jangling,
vain, acrid, scrannel-piping man. Thou dost well to say with sick
Saul, "It is nought, such harping!"--and in sudden rage, to grasp thy
spear, and try if thou canst pin such a one to the wall. King Saul was
mistaken in his man, but thou art right in thine. It is the due of
such a one: nail him to the wall, and leave him there. So ought copper
shillings to be nailed on counters; copper geniuses on walls, and left
there for a sign!--

I conclude that the Men of Letters too may become a 'Chivalry,' an
actual instead of a virtual Priesthood, with result immeasurable,--so
soon as there is nobleness in themselves for that. And, to a
certainty, not sooner! Of intrinsic Valetisms you cannot, with whole
Parliaments to help you, make a Heroism. Doggeries never so
gold-plated, Doggeries never so escutcheoned, Doggeries never so
diplomaed, bepuffed, gas-lighted, continue Doggeries, and must take
the fate of such.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DIDACTIC.

Certainly it were a fond imagination to expect that any preaching of
mine could abate Mammonism; that Bobus of Houndsditch will love his
guineas less, or his poor soul more, for any preaching of mine! But
there is one Preacher who does preach with effect, and gradually
persuade all persons: his name is De