Dickens felt this, but he had not the courage to face his subjects; his monthly numbers had to lie on the family tea-table.

Not _virginibus puerisque_ will be my book, I assure you, but for men and women who like to look beneath the surface, and who understand that only as artistic material has human life any significance.

Yes, that is the conclusion I am working round to.

The artist is the only sane man.

Life for its own sake ?--no; I would drink a pint of laudanum to-night.