itty, but he had new views on art and
original ideas. As a great artist he knew that "there never was an
artistic period. There never was an Art-loving nation." Again and
again he reached pure beauty of expression. The masterly persiflage,
too, filled me with admiration and I declared that the lecture ranked
with the best ever heard in London with Coleridge's on Shakespeare and
Carlyle's on Heroes. To my astonishment Oscar would not admit the
superlative quality of Whistler's talk; he thought the message
paradoxical and the ridicule of the professors too bitter.
"Whistler's like a wasp," he cried, "and carries about with him a
poisoned sting." Oscar's kindly sweet nature revolted against the
disdainful aggressiveness of Whistler's attitude. Besides, in essence,
Whistler's lecture was an attack on the academic theory taught in the
universities, and defended naturally by a young scholar like Oscar
Wilde. Whistler's view that the artist was sporadic, a happy chance, a
"sport," in fact, was a new view, and Oscar had not yet reached this
level; he reviewed the master in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, a review
remarkable for one of the earliest gleams of that genial humour which
later became his most characteristic gift: "Whistler," he said, "is
indeed one of the very greatest masters of painting in my opinion. And
I may add that in this opinion Mr. Whistler himself entirely concurs."

Whistler retorted in _The World_ and Oscar replied, but Whistler had
the best of the argument.... "Oscar--the amiable, irresponsible,
esurient Oscar--with no more sense of a picture than of the fit of a
coat, has the courage of the opinions ... of others!"

It should be noted here that one of the bitterest of tongues could not
help doing homage to Oscar Wilde's "amiability": Whistler even
preferred to call him "amiable and irresponsible" rather than give
his plagiarism a harsher attribute.

Oscar Wilde learned almost all he knew of art[8] and of controversy
from Whistler, but he was never more than a pupil in either field; for
controversy in especial he was poorly equipped: he had neither the
courage, nor the contempt, nor the joy in conflict of his great
exemplar.

Unperturbed by Whistler's attacks, Oscar went on lecturing about the
country on "Personal Impressions of America," and in August crossed
again to New York to see his play "Vera" produced by Marie Prescott at
the Union Square Theatre. It was a complete failure, as might have
been expe