rtist's heart as to
his right and power to speak. His duty is to gain flexibility by
perseverance; and, meanwhile, to analyse, to keep his mind large and
sympathetic, to open all the windows of his heart to the day; not to be
conventional, prejudiced, or wilful; to believe that any one who can
see beauty or truth in a thing is nearer to its essence than one who
can only criticise or despise.

This is roughly and awkwardly put; but I believe it to be true. Tell me
what you feel about it; stay me with flagons, whatever that mysterious
process may be. . . .--Ever yours,

T. B.

OXFORD,
Dec. 23, 1904.

MY DEAR HERBERT,--I came down, as soon as the term was over, to Oxford,
where I have come in the way of a good deal of talk. I find that I
become somewhat of a connoisseur in the matter of conversation as I
grow older; and I must also confess that such powers as I possess in
that direction are of the tete-a-tete order. A candid friend of mine, a
gracious lady, who wields some of the arts of a salon, lately took the
wind out of my sails, on an occasion when I formed one of a large and
rather tongue-tied party at her house. I had flung myself, rather
strenuously, into the breach, and had talked with more valour than
discretion. Later in the evening I had a little confabulation with
herself, at the end of which she said to me, with a vaguely reminiscent
air, "What a pity it is that you are only a tete-a-tete talker!"

To be a salon talker indeed requires a certain self-possession, a kind
of grasp of the different individuals which surround you, which is of
the nature of Napoleonic strategy.

At Oxford one does not find much general conversation. The party which
meets night by night in Hall is too large for any diffused talk; and,
moreover, the clink and clash of service, the merry chatter of the
undergraduates fill the scene with a background of noise. There is a
certain not unpleasant excitement, of the gambling type, as to who
one's neighbours will be. Sometimes by a dexterous stroke one can
secure one's chosen companion; but it also may happen that one may be
at the end of the row of the first detachment which sits down to dinner
(for the table slowly fills), and then it is like a game of dominoes;
it is uncertain who may occupy one's nether flank. But the party is so
large that there is a great variety. Of course we have our
drawbacks--what society has not? There is the argumentative,
hair-splitting Professo