is the greatest figure in the world's literature since Greek
days, Keats remarked that he had as much pleasure in conceiving the evil
as he had in conceiving the good. Let your reviewer, Sir, consider the
bearings of Keats' criticism, for it is under these conditions that
every artist works. One stands remote from one's subject-matter. One
creates it, and one contemplates it. The further away the subject-matter
is, the more freely can the artist work.

Your reviewer suggests that I do not make it sufficiently clear whether
I prefer virtue to wickedness or wickedness to virtue. An artist, Sir,
has no ethical sympathies at all. Virtue and wickedness are to him
simply what the colours on his palette are to the painter. They are no
more, and they are no less. He sees that by their means a certain
artistic effect can be produced and he produces it. Iago may be morally
horrible and Imogen stainlessly pure. Shakespeare, as Keats said, had as
much delight in creating the one as he had in creating the other.

It was necessary, Sir, for the dramatic development of this story, to
surround Dorian Gray with an atmosphere of moral corruption. Otherwise
the story would have had no meaning and the plot no issue. To keep this
atmosphere vague and indeterminate and wonderful was the aim of the
artist who wrote the story. I claim, Sir, that he has succeeded. Each
man sees his own sin in Dorian Gray. What Dorian Gray's sins are no one
knows. He who finds them has brought them.

In conclusion, Sir, let me say how really deeply I regret that you
should have permitted such a notice, as the one I feel constrained to
write on, to have appeared in your paper. That the editor of the _St.
James's Gazette_ should have employed Caliban as his art-critic was
possibly natural. The editor of the _Scots Observer_ should not have
allowed Thersites to make mows in his reviews. It is unworthy of so
distinguished a man of letters.

I am, etc.,

OSCAR WILDE.

To this letter the following editorial note was added:--

It was not to be expected that Mr. Wilde would agree with his
reviewer as to the artistic merit of his booklet. Let it be
conceded to him that he has succeeded in surrounding his hero with
such an atmosphere as he describes. This is his reward. It is none
the less legitimate for a critic to hold and to express the opinion
that no treatment, however skilful, can make the atmosphere