Volume VII - Modernist Magazines Project

From "The Yellow Dwarf' 133that Heaven has denied me : one can't expect everything herebelow. Their artificial simplicity, their clumsiness, their heaviness,their dreary counterfeit of a kind of common humour, theirlaborious strivings for a kind of shoddy pathos, their ignorance,their vulgarity, their pretentiousness, and withal their unmitigatedinsipidity—these are the qualities, no doubt, that make thempopular with the middle classes, that endear them to the GreatHeart of the People, but they are too much for the likes o' me. Idon't mind vulgarity when I can get it with a dash of spice,as in the writings of Mr. Ally Sloper, or with a swagger, asin the writings of Mr. Frank Harris. I don't mind insipiditywhen I can get it with a touch of cosmopolitan culture, as in thewritings of Mr. Karl Baedeker. But vulgarity and insipiditymingled, as in the writings of Mr. Hall Caine, are more than myweak flesh can bear. On the title-page of The Manxman Mr. Caineprints this modest motto : " What shall it profit a man if he gainthe whole world and lose his own soul ? " On page 6 he observes :" In spite of everything he loved her. That was where thebitterness of the evil lay." On page 7, "A man cannot fightagainst himself for long. That deadly enemy is certain to slay."On page n, "His first memory of Philip was of sleeping withhim, snuggled up by his side in the dark, hushed and still in anarrow bed with iron ends to it, and of leaping up in the morningand laughing." And then, on page 41, " The moon had comeup in her whiteness behind, and all was quiet and solemn around."Note the subtle perceptions, the profound insight, the daintyverbiage, the fresh images, the musical rhythm of these excerpts." That was where the bitterness of the evil lay ! " " A mancannot fight against himself! " " The moon had come up inher whiteness beyind !".... Faugh, sir, the gentleman writeswith his mouth full. Let us haste to an apothecary's, and buy anounce