you lose your way, my
brother, and cannot recognize your kin?

Shall I be brought to the bar by my own blood, and be borne false
witness against before the plebeian people? Shall I be made to
stultify myself by what I never said--and shall the strength of your
testimony turn upon me? "If"--"If Japanese Art is right in confining
itself to what can be broidered upon the fan" ... and again ...
"that he really believes the highest expression of his art to be
realized in reproduction of the grin and glare, the smirk and leer"
... and further ... "the theory which condemns high art, under the
penalty of being considered intelligent, to remain eternally on the
grin" ... and much more!

"Amateur writer!" Well should I deserve the reproach, had I ventured
ever beyond the precincts of my own science--and fatal would have been
the exposure, as you, with heedless boldness, have unwittingly proven.

Art tainted with philanthropy--that better Art result!--Poet and
Peabody!

You have been misled--you have mistaken the pale demeanour and joined
hands for an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual
earnestness. For you, these are the serious ones, and, for them, you
others are the serious matter. Their joke is their work. For me--why
should I refuse myself the grim joy of this grotesque tragedy--and,
with them now, you all are my joke!

[Illustration]

_Freeing a Last Friend_

Bravo! Bard! and exquisitely written, I suppose, as becomes your
state.

[Sidenote: _The World_, June 3, 1888. Letter to Mr.
Swinburne.]

The scientific irrelevancies and solemn popularities, less elaborately
embodied, I seem to have met with before--in papers signed by more
than one serious and unqualified sage, whose mind also was not
narrowed by knowledge.

I have been "personal," you say; and, faith! you prove it!

Thank you, my dear! I have lost a _confrere_; but, then, I have gained
an acquaintance--one Algernon Swinburne--"outsider"--Putney.

[Illustration]

_An Editor's Anxiety_

[Sidenote: _Pall Mall Gazette_, April 26, 1889.]

It is reported that Mr. Whistler, having received word that a drawing
of his had been rejected by the Committee of the Universal Exhibition,
arrived yesterday in Paris and withdrew all his remaining works,
including an oil painting and six drawings. The French consider that
he has been guilty of a breach of good manners. The _Paris_, for
ins