But there it is,--the thing's a Fact.
I find no other reason
But that some scribbling itch attacked
Him in and out of season,
To write what no one else should read,
With this for second meaning,
To "cleanse his bosom" (and indeed
It sometimes wanted cleaning);
To speak, as 'twere, his private mind,
Unhindered by repression,
To make his motley life a kind,
Of Midas' ears confession;
And thus outgrew this work _per se_,--
This queer, kaleidoscopic,
Delightful, blabbing, vivid, free
Hotch-pot of daily topic.
So artless in its vanity,
So fleeting, so eternal,
So packed with "poor Humanity"--
We know as Pepys' his journal.[51]
Note:
[51] Written for the Pepys' Dinner at Magdalene College, Cambridge,
February 23rd, 1905.
A FRENCH CRITIC ON BATH
Among other pleasant premonitions of the present _entente cordiale_
between France and England is the increased attention which, for some
time past, our friends of Outre Manche have been devoting to our
literature. That this is wholly of recent growth, is not, of course, to
be inferred. It must be nearly five-and-forty years since M. Hippolyte
Taine issued his logical and orderly _Histoire de la Litterature
Anglaise_; while other isolated efforts of insight and importance--such
as the _Laurence Sterne_ of M.
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