sed. From his point of view I infer that he considers
genius as a dangerous kind of drunkenness that fascinates the world, but
is really closely related to bad form in literature. On the other hand,
father says that if Matthew Arnold had known of me he would have purchased
me, placed me in a cage with a fountain pen, and exhibited me to his
classes at Oxford as a literary freak!

VII

PHILIP TO JESSICA

MY DEAR MISS DOANE:

I will remember your amused hostility to "hairpin gardeners" and see that
no more out-of-door books come to you until I have one with a stimulating
odour of burning cornstalks and rotting cabbages. Meanwhile let me assure
you that your reviews of _Elizabeth, Evelina, Judith_, and their sisters
have been none the less delightful for a vein of wicked impatience running
through them. The books I am now sending....

You ought not to be amazed at my dismal comments on latter-day literature.
The fact is, you have dissected our present book-makers better than I
could do it myself, for the reason that I am too amiable (I presume, you
see, that I have the wit) to judge my fellow-workers with such merciless
veracity.

But I have just read an article in the _Popular Science Monthly_ which
throws an unexpected light on the subject. The paper is by Dr. Minot and
is a biologist's comment on "The Problem of Consciousness." You might not
suppose that an argument to show how "the function of consciousness is to
dislocate in time the reactions from sensations" (!) would have much to do
with the properties of literature, but it has. Let me copy out some of his
words, as probably you have not seen the magazine:

"The communication between individuals is especially characteristic
of vertebrates, and in the higher members of that subkingdom it plays
a very great role in aiding the work of consciousness. In man, owing
to articulate speech, the factor of communication has acquired a
maximum importance. The value of language, our principal medium of
communication, lies in its aiding the adjustment of the individual
and the race to external reality. Human evolution is the continuation
of animal evolution, and in both the dominant factor has been the
increase of the resources available for consciousness."

Now that sounds pretty well for a scientist. It should seem to follow
that literature, being, so to speak, the permanent mode of
communication,--conveying ideas and emotions not merely from