But Wilde's creed was intensely popular with the "Smart Set" because of its very one-sidedness, and he was hailed as a prophet partly because he defended the cherished prejudices of the "landed" oligarchy.
It will be seen from this that Oscar Wilde was in some danger of suffering from excessive popularity and unmerited renown.

Indeed if he had loved athletic sports, hunting and shooting instead of art and letters, he might have been the selected representative of aristocratic England.
In addition to his own popular qualities a strong current was sweeping him to success.

He was detested by the whole of the middle or shop-keeping class which in England, according to Matthew Arnold, has "the sense of conduct--and has but little else." This class hated and feared him; feared him for his intellectual freedom and his contempt of conventionality, and hated him because of his light-hearted self-indulgence, and also because it saw in him none of its own sordid virtues.

_Punch_ is peculiarly the representative of this class and of all English prejudices, and _Punch_ jeered at him now in prose, now in verse, week after week.

Under the heading, "More Impressions" (by Oscuro Wildgoose) I find this: "My little fancy's clogged with gush, My little lyre is false in tone, And when I lyrically moan, I hear the impatient critic's 'Tush!' "But I've 'Impressions.' These are grand! Mere dabs of words, mere blobs of tint, Displayed on canvas or in print, Men laud, and think they understand.
"A smudge of brown, a smear of yellow, No tale, no subject,--there you are! Impressions!--and the strangest far Is--that the bard's a clever fellow." A little later these lines appeared: "My languid lily, my lank limp lily, My long, lithe lily-love, men may grin-- Say that I'm soft and supremely silly-- What care I, while you whisper still; What care I, while you smile?
Not a pin! While you smile, while you whisper-- 'Tis sweet to decay! I have watered with chlorodine, tears of chagrin, The churchyard mould I have planted thee in, Upside down, in an intense way, In a rough red flower-pot, _sweeter than sin_, That I bought for a halfpenny, yesterday!" The italics are mine; but the suggestion was always implicit; yet this constant wind of puritanic hatred blowing against him helped instead of hindering his progress: strong men are made by opposition; like kites they go up against the wind..