Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1881 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

''Virginibus Pucrisqiier "J'}^
in the turn of a sentence he insults, by a side
wind, those whom he is labouring to charm ; in
speaking to one sentiment he unconsciously
ruffles another in parenthesis ; and you are not
surprised, for you know his task to be delicate
and filled with perils. " O frivolous mind of
man, light ignorance ! " As if yourself, when
you seek to explain some misunderstanding or
excuse some apparent fault, speaking swiftly
and addressing a mind still recently incensed,
were not harnessing for a more perilous adven-
ture ; as if yourself required less tact and
eloquence ; as if an angry friend or a suspicious
lover were not more easy to offend than a meet-
ing of indifferent politicians ! Nay, and the
orator treads in a beaten round ; the matters he
discusses have been discussed a thousand times
before ; language is ready-shaped to his purpose ;
he speaks out of a cut and dry vocabulary.
But you — may it not be that your defence
reposes on some subtlety of feeling, not so much