classes at the same time the most moral--That men of high intellectual
aims have an especially strong reason for morality--M. Taine's
opinion.

A critic in one of the quarterlies once treated me as a feeble defender
of my opinions, because I gave due consideration to both sides of a
question. He said that, like a wise commander, I capitulated beforehand
in case my arguments did not come up for my relief; nay, more, that I
gave up my arms in unconditional surrender. To this let me answer, that
I have nothing to do with the polemical method, that I do not look upon
an opponent as an enemy to be repelled, but as a torch-bearer to be
welcomed for any light that he may bring; that I defend nothing, but try
to explore everything that lies near enough.

You need not expect me, therefore, to defend very vigorously the
morality of the intellectual life. An advocate could do it brilliantly;
there are plenty of materials, but so clumsy an advocate as your present
correspondent would damage the best of causes by unseasonable
indiscretions. So I begin by admitting that your accusations are most
of them well founded. Many intellectual people have led immoral lives,
others have led lives which, although in strict conformity to their own
theories of morality, were in opposition to the morality of their
country and their age. Byron is a good instance of the first, and
Shelley of the second. Byron was really and knowingly immoral; Shelley,
on the other hand, hated what he considered to be immorality, and lived
a life as nearly as possible in accordance with the moral ideal in his
own conscience; still he did not respect the moral rule of his country,
but lived with Mary Godwin, whilst Harriet, his first wife, was still
alive. There is a clear distinction between the two cases; yet both have
the defect that the person takes in hand the regulation of his own
morality, which it is hardly safe for any one to do, considering the
prodigious force of passion.

I find even in the lives of intellectual people a peculiar temptation to
immorality from which others are exempt. It is in their nature to feel
an eager desire for intellectual companionship, and yet at the same time
to exhaust very rapidly whatever is congenial to them in the intellect
of their friends. They feel a strong intellectual attraction to persons
of the opposite sex; and the idea of living with a person whose
conversation is believed at the time to promise an increasing