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THE COURIER
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that money is tight a nnst vulgar CDaittioa to ba
the way: one will hear in the future that minay
by
13
not, then we shall barter, offar glaw baa 13 for a lunch, or sail our
virtue for a good dinner."
Here is the Chcar Wilde of it: "Yea, it is nit so easy to ba wickad
although stupid paople think sx To sin baautitully, a you sin,
Reggie, oven as I have sinned for years, h one of the mast compli
cated of the arts. There are hardly six paaple in a cantury who can
master it Sin has its technique, just as painting ha3 its technique.
Sin has its harmonies, and its dissonances, as music has
its harmonies and its dissonances. The amateur
sinner, the mere bungler whom wa nnat with, alai; sa fre
quently, is parpatually introducing canasutiva fifth? and 03tave3
into his music, parpatually bringing wrong calor not93 into his paint
ing. His sins are daubs or pot bailers, not misterpiecas that will
dory the insidious action of timav To commit a parfest sin is to ba
great, Raggie, ju3t as to produca a perfect picture, or to compose a
perfect symphony, is to be great. 'Francesco Cenci should have been
worshipped instead of murdered. But the world can no more under
stand the beauty of sin, than it pan understand the preface to 'The
Egotist,' or the simplicity of 'Sordello.' Sin puzzles it; and all
that puzzles the world frightens the world; for the world is a child,
without a child's charm, or a child's innocaat blue eyes. The
man who invents a new sin is greater than the man who invents a
new religion, Raggie, no Mr3. Humphrey Ward can snatch his glory
from him. Religions are the Aunt Sallies that men provide for
elderly female venturists to throw missies at and demolish."
As Mrs. Windsor and Lady Locke were driving about a village
they espied George Mare Jith, tha novelist. Mrs. Wlndnr remarked:
"How like he is to Watts portrait of him ! I never can get him to
come near me, although I have read all his books. Mr. Amarinth
Bays he is going to bring out a new edition of them 'done into Eng
lish by himself. It is such a good idea, and would help the readers
so much. I believe he could make a Jot of money by it, but it
would be very difficult to do, I suppose."
"These strawberries are very good," &ays Rag'ib. "I should like
to finish them, only I hate finishing anything. There is something
bo commonplace about it Don't you think so? Commonplace
people are always finishing up things, and getting through things.
They map out their days and have special hours for everything. I
should like to have special hours for nothing. That would be much
more original."
"It is quite a mistake to believe, as many people do, that the mind
shows itself in the face. Vice may sometime reveal itself in lines
and change of contour, but that is all. Our faces are really masks
given to us to conceal our minds with. Of course, occasionally the
mask slips partly off, generally when we are stupid and emotional.
But that is an inirtistic accident. Outward revelations of what is
going on inside of us take place far more seldom than silly people
suppose. No more preposterous theory has ever been put forward
than that of the artist revealing himself in his art The writer, for
instance, has at least three minds his Society mind, his writing
mind and his real mind. They are all quite separate and disHnct,or
they ought to be. When his writing mind and his real mind get
mixed up together he ceases to be an artist. That is why Swinburne
has gone off bo much. If you want to write really fine erotic poetry
you must live an absolutely rigid and entirely respectablo life. The
Laus Veneris could only have been produced by a man who had a
nonconformist conscience. I am certain that Mrs. Humphrey Ward
is the most strictly orthodox Christian whom we have, otherwise,
her books against applied Christianity could never have brought
her so many thousand pounds. I never read her of course. Life is
far too long and lovely for that sort of thing; but a bishop once told
mo that she was a great artist, and that if she had a sense of gravity
she would rival George Eliott. Dickens had probably no cense of
humor, that is why he made second rate people die of laughing.
Oscar Wilde was utterly mistaken when he wrote 'The Picture of
Dorian Grey.' After Dorian's act of cruelty, the picture ought to
have grown more sweet, more saintly, more angelic in expression."
Lady Locke remarks: "I never read that book." "Then you have
gained a great deal. Poor Oscar! He is terribly truthful. He re
minds me so much of George Washington."
Amarinth says: "There is nothing so interesting as telling a man
or woman how bad one has been. It is intellectially fascinating.
One of the greatest pleasures of having been what is called wicked
is, that one has eo much to say to the good. Good people love hear
ing about sin. Haven't you noticed that although the sinner takes
no sort of interest in the saint, the saint has always an uneasy
curiosity about the doings of the sinner?"
"How beautiful,' says Lady Locke, specking of a song, "and how
wrong!"
"Surely that is a contradiction in terms. Nothing that is beauti
ful can possibly be wrong.'
"Then how exquisitely right some women have been whom
Society has hounded out of its good graces."
"Yes, and bow exquisitely happy in their rectitude."
"But not in their punishment I think it is Billy to give people the
chance of whipping you for what.they do themselves.'
"Society ouly loves one thing more than sinning."
"And what is that?"
"Administering justice."
Here is what Reggie has to Bay of cynicism: "Cynicism is merely
the art of seeing things as they are, instead of as they ought to be.
If one says that Christianity has never converted the Christians, or
that love has ruined more women than hate, or that virtue is anacci
dent of environment one is sure to be dubbed a cynic. And yet all
these remarks are true to absolute absurdity."
Other epigrams and smart sayings in the book are
"Truth without any clothes on frequently passes for epigram."
"Our minds are shot with moods as a fabric is shot with colors."
"Sensations are the details that build up the story of our lives."
"Prolonged purity wrinkles the mind as much as prolonged im
purity wrinkles the face."
"To get drunk deliberately is as foolish as to get sober by acci
dent." "In conceit many a man and woman have found salvation, yet the
average person goes on all fours grovelling after modesty."
"People who mean well always do badly."
"Gooi intentions are invariably ungrammatical."
"There is no such thing as luck in the world. There is only cap
ability. .Have you ever noticed that when a man is a failure his
friends say he is an able man. No man is able who i; unable to get
on, just as no woman is clever who can't succeed in obtaining that
worst, and most necessary, of evils a husband."
"The amount of excellence going about is positively quite amas
ing, if we only know wheFe to look for it; but good people in So
ciety are bo terribly afraid of being found out Society is absolutely
frank about its sins, but secretive about it lapses into goodness."
"Circumstances are the lashes laid into us by life."
'Nothing is so unattractive as goodness."
"One must perpetually doubt to be faithful."
"Intelligence is the demon of our age,"
"People are so dreadfully solemn when they have made a name,
that it is like doing a term of hard labor to be with them five min
utes." "Stupidity gives you a ticket-of-leave, and sheer foolish ignorance
is complete emancipation, without even police supervision.'
"It is not the man who makes money that is clever. It is the
man who spends it."
"Genius is the art of not taking pains.'
"One touch of Nature makes the whole world commonplace."
The book is issued anonymously. In effect it is a fine, satire on
the Oscar Wilde school, the latest' and most dreadful affliction in
Vauity Fair. exton.
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