est and noblest.

All this, of the importance and supreme importance of the Man of Letters
in modern Society, and how the Press is to such a degree superseding
the Pulpit, the Senate, the _Senatus Academicus_ and much else, has been
admitted for a good while; and recognized often enough, in late times,
with a sort of sentimental triumph and wonderment. It seems to me, the
Sentimental by and by will have to give place to the Practical. If Men
of Letters _are_ so incalculably influential, actually performing such
work for us from age to age, and even from day to day, then I think
we may conclude that Men of Letters will not always wander like
unrecognized unregulated Ishmaelites among us! Whatsoever thing, as I
said above, has virtual unnoticed power will cast off its wrappages,
bandages, and step forth one day with palpably articulated, universally
visible power. That one man wear the clothes, and take the wages, of a
function which is done by quite another: there can be no profit in
this; this is not right, it is wrong. And yet, alas, the _making_ of it
right,--what a business, for long times to come! Sure enough, this that
we call Organization of the Literary Guild is still a great way off,
encumbered with all manner of complexities. If you asked me what were
the best possible organization for the Men of Letters in modern society;
the arrangement of furtherance and regulation, grounded the most
accurately on the actual facts of their position and of the world's
position,--I should beg to say that the problem far exceeded my faculty!
It is not one man's faculty; it is that of many successive men turned
earnestly upon it, that will bring out even an approximate solution.
What the best arrangement were, none of us could say. But if you ask,
Which is the worst? I answer: This which we now have, that Chaos should
sit umpire in it; this is the worst. To the best, or any good one, there
is yet a long way.

One remark I must not omit, That royal or parliamentary grants of money
are by no means the chief thing wanted! To give our Men of Letters
stipends, endowments and all furtherance of cash, will do little
towards the business. On the whole, one is weary of hearing about the
omnipotence of money. I will say rather that, for a genuine man, it is
no evil to be poor; that there ought to be Literary Men poor,--to show
whether they are genuine or not! Mendicant Orders, bodies of good men
doomed to beg, were instituted in the Chri