'
Well! one should laugh and be wise. But somehow one doesn't laugh. A
letter beginning, 'You are a great teacher of truth,' and ending, 'You
are a dishonest wretch,' makes you cold somehow, and ill disposed
towards the satisfactions of literary distinction. Yes! and be sure,
Isa, that the 'true gods sigh,' and have reason to sigh, for the cost
and pain of it; sigh only ... don't haggle over the cost; don't grudge
a crazia, but.... sigh, sigh ... while they pay honestly.
"On the other hand, there's much light talking and congratulation,
excellent returns to the pocket from the poem in the _Cornhill_;
pleasant praise from dear Mr. Trollope.... with all drawbacks: a good
opinion from Isa worth its gold--and Pan laughs.
"But he is a beast up to the waist; yes, Mr. Trollope, a beast. He is
not a true god.
"And I am neither god nor beast, if you please--only a
"BA."
* * * * *
[Footnote 1: These dots do not indicate any hiatus. They exist in the
MS. as here given.]
It seems that she certainly imagined me to be the critic; but must
have been subsequently undeceived. I will not venture to say a word on
the question of the marring or making of a man which results from the
creation of a poet; but if my brother had known Mrs. Browning as well
as I knew her, he would not have written that he could "hardly believe
that she herself believes in the doctrine that her fancy has led her
to illustrate.
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