second to write to the author and tell him that I was very sorry, and that he was an ill-used genius. I can fancy that books of that order are both more irritating and more common than real trash. It seems to be so in everything. An absolutely worthless man would almost be interesting as a curiosity. The street-boy problem consists not in the actual but the possible thief, and among our acquaintances those who are thoroughly stupid or ill- natured are no trouble — we simply drop them and forget them. Those who fret us are the people that ought to be charming, — would be, but for some defect or deforming excrescence that we dare not even try to pluck out, lest the whole moral nature bleed to death."
"Thank you so much for letting me see Mr. Macdonald's poems ; some parts one can read over and over like Bible words, with that mingling of sympathy and reverence that is one of the joys of life ; but I think his poetic feeling masters him, instead of his mastering it — a possible beauty in the man, but a flaw in the artist. * * * * Mr. Swinburne fails, if he does fail, from the opposite excess. I can fancy him really enjoying himself over his poetry, like a reckless rider on a good horse. Only Shakespeare — 'II Divino' — combines the two types — trills out 'Who is Sylvia?' and sighs, with deep content, 'There's a Divinity doth shape our ends.' " ***** "Mr. Macdonald says, in this month's 'Guild Court,' 'only God can satisfy a woman.' Surely God can satisfy a poet ?" ***** " I have been reading Miss Green well's poems, and like some of them very much. * * * They are not musical, but they are poetical : and since it seems that we must give up one, the music must go, as soul is higher than sense. Nevertheless for
