The
public itself has hardly more voice in the question who shall have
its ear, than the land has in choosing its owners. It is farmed as
those who own it think most profitable to themselves, and small
blame to them; nevertheless, it has a residuum of mulishness which
the land has not, and does sometimes dispossess its tenants. It is
in this residuum that those who fight place their hope and trust.
Or perhaps AEschylus squared the leading critics of his time. When
one comes to think of it, he must have done so, for how is it
conceivable that such plays should have had such runs if he had not?
I met a lady one year in Switzerland who had some parrots that
always travelled with her and were the idols of her life. These
parrots would not let any one read aloud in their presence, unless
they heard their own names introduced from time to time. If these
were freely interpolated into the text they would remain as still as
stones, for they thought the reading was about themselves. If it
was not about them it could not be allowed. The leaders of
literature are like these parrots; they do not look at what a man
writes, nor if they did would they understand it much better than
the parrots do; but they like the sound of their own names, and if
these are freely interpolated in a tone they take as friendly, they
may even give ear to an outsider.
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