This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... and I suppose her a judge. But she judged on scanty evidence. He has something that Christina Light, here, makes believe at times that she takes for one, but she's no judge at all. I think it established that in the long run egotism (in too big a dose) makes a failure in conduct: is it also true that it makes a failure in the arts?... Roderick's standard is immensely high; I must do him that justice. He 'll do nothing beneath it, and while he's waiting for the vision to descend his imagination, his nerves, his senses must have something to amuse them. This is my elegant way of breaking it to you that he has taken to riotous living and has just been spending a month at Naples--a city where amusement is actively cultivated--in very bad company. Are they all like that, all the men of genius? There are a great many artists here who hammer away at their trade with exemplary diligence; in fact I'm surprised at their success in reducing the matter to a virtuous habit; but I really don't think that one of them has his exquisite quality of talent. The talent's there, it's the application that has broken down. Nothing comes out of the bottle; he turns it upside down; it refuses to flow. Sometimes he declares it's empty--that he has done all he was made to do. This I consider great nonsense; but I would nevertheless take him on his own terms if it were only I that am concerned. But I keep thinking of those two praying, trusting neighbours of yours, and I feel like a bad bungler when I don't feel like a swindler. If his working mood came at its intervals, fixed ones, I'd willingly wait for it and keep him on his legs somehow or other between; but that would be a sorry account to present to them! A few years of this sort of thing, moreover, would...
I nomi epiceni
