harsh things about Mr Scott, but if so, I have forgotten
them, and I think all harsh things are better forgotten. I
am sorry, therefore, to hear that you are on the war-path,
and wish I could persuade you to turn back to the paths of
peace. You are too valuable to be wasted in this sort of
warfare. I daresay you will smile at such advice from _me_,
of all men, but believe me, I speak from sad experience.

I was sorry to hear about the fate of your play, but 'tis
the fortune of war, and I hope it will only stir you to
another effort which may possess, not more merit, possibly,
but better _luck_, which now-a-days counts more than merit.
--With all good wishes, I am, yours truly,

(Sgd.) Robert Buchanan.

_Copy of Letter to David Christie Murray, Sept. 1st_.

"Merliland," 25 Maresfield Gardens, South Hampstead, N.W.

Dear Christie Murray,--I thank you for your kind breath of
encouragement, and am very glad that my _Outcast_ contains
anything to awaken a response in so fine a nature as your
own. It was very good of you to think of writing to me on
the subject at all.

I can't help thinking that men who still hold to the old
traditions should stick together and form some kind of a
phalanx. I was not sorry, therefore, to hear that you had
expressed yourself freely about the craze of a noisy
minority for formlessness and ugliness in realistic
literature. Ibsen's style, regarded merely as style, bears
the same relation to good writing that the _Star_ newspaper
does to a Greek statue. I don't myself much mind what morals
a man teaches, so long as he preserves the morality of
beautiful _form_, but at the rate we are now going,
literature seems likely to become a series of _causes
celebres_ chronicled in the language of the penny-a-liner.
And over and above this is the dirty habit, growing upon
many able men, of examining their secretions, always an
evident sign of hypochondria.

I am awaiting with much interest your further steps on the
plane dramatic. Meantime, I hope I shall see more of you and
yours. With kind regards.--Truly yours,

(Sgd.) Robert Buchanan.

_Copy of Letter to David Christie Murray. 17th January
1905_.

75 Cambridge Terrace, W.

Dear Sir,--I trust you will forgive