and not merely was he
right in the ordinary sense of the word, but he was artistically right,
which is everything. The critic has to educate the public; the artist
has to educate the critic.

Allow me to make one more correction, Sir, and I will have done with Mr.
Whibley. He ends his letter with the statement that I have been
indefatigable in my public appreciation of my own work. I have no doubt
that in saying this he means to pay me a compliment, but he really
overrates my capacity, as well as my inclination for work. I must
frankly confess that, by nature and by choice, I am extremely indolent.

Cultivated idleness seems to me to be the proper occupation for man. I
dislike newspaper controversies of any kind, and of the two hundred and
sixteen criticisms of Dorian Gray that have passed from my library table
into the wastepaper basket I have taken public notice of only three. One
was that which appeared in the Scots Observer. I noticed it because it
made a suggestion, about the intention of the author in writing the book,
which needed correction. The second was an article in the St. James's
Gazette. It was offensively and vulgarly written, and seemed to me to
require immediate and caustic censure. The tone of the article was an
impertinence to any man of letters.

The third was a meek attack in a paper called the Daily Chronicle. I
think my writing to the Daily Chronicle was an act of pure wilfulness. In
fact, I feel sure it was. I quite forget what they said. I believe they
said that Dorian Gray was poisonous, and I thought that, on alliterative
grounds, it would be kind to remind them that, however that may be, it is
at any rate perfect. That was all. Of the other two hundred and
thirteen criticisms I have taken no notice. Indeed, I have not read more
than half of them. It is a sad thing, but one wearies even of praise.

As regards Mr. Brown's letter, it is interesting only in so far as it
exemplifies the truth of what I have said above on the question of the
two obvious schools of critics. Mr. Brown says frankly that he considers
morality to be the 'strong point' of my story. Mr. Brown means well, and
has got hold of a half truth, but when he proceeds to deal with the book
from the artistic standpoint he, of course, goes sadly astray. To class
Dorian Gray with M. Zola's La Terre is as silly as if one were to class
Musset's Fortunio with one of the Adelphi melodramas. Mr. Brown should
be c