tates also benefited him.... "Democracy
means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
It has been found out."

Taken all in all a provocative delightful essay which like _Salome_ in
the aesthetic field marks the end of his _Lehrjahre_ and the beginning of
his work as a master.

A LAST WORD

In the couple of years that have elapsed since the first edition of this
book was published, I have received many letters from readers asking for
information about Wilde which I have omitted to give. I have been
threatened with prosecution and must not speak plainly; but something
may be said in answer to those who contend that Oscar might have brought
forward weightier arguments in his defence than are to be found in
Chapter XXIV. As a matter of fact I have made him more persuasive than
he was. When Oscar declared (as recorded on page 496) that his weakness
was "consistent with the highest ideal of humanity if not a
characteristic of it," I asked him: "would he make the same defence for
the Lesbians?" He turned aside showing the utmost disgust in face and
words, thus in my opinion giving his whole case away.

He could have made a better defence. He might have said that as we often
eat or drink or smoke for pleasure, so we may indulge in other
sensualities. If he had argued that his sin was comparatively venial and
so personal-peculiar that it carried with it no temptation to the normal
man, I should not have disputed his point.

Moreover, love at its highest is independent of sex and sensuality.
Since Luther we have been living in a centrifugal movement, in a wild
individualism where all ties of love and affection have been loosened,
and now that the centripetal movement has come into power we shall find
that in another fifty years or so friendship and love will win again to
honor and affinities of all sorts will proclaim themselves without shame
and without fear. In this sense Oscar might have regarded himself as a
forerunner and not as a survival or "sport." And it may well be that
some instinctive feeling of this sort was at the back of his mind though
too vague to be formulated in words. For even in our dispute (see Page
500) he pleaded that the world was becoming more tolerant, which, one
hopes, is true. To become more tolerant of the faults of others is the
first lesson in the religion of Humanity.

_The End._

_A letter from Lord Alfred Douglas to Oscar Wilde that I reproduce here
speak