as a
rushlight flickered his little flicker and went out. It is as well; they
would never have been taken seriously. It is almost a tradition that
they should not be taken seriously, and it is on record in most of the
worldly memoirs of the nineteenth century that the two main objections
to Disraeli were his waistcoats and his authorship of _Contarini
Fleming_. Nero liked to see people burnt alive; Disraeli wrote novels.
Weaknesses are found in all great men.

There seems in this to lie error as well as scandal; when a new
organisation is created, say for the control of lamp oil, obviously a
novelist should not be made its chairman, but why should a blotting
paper merchant be preferred? Indeed, one might side with Mr Zangwill,
who demands representation for authors in the Cabinet itself, on the
plea that they would introduce the emotion which is necessary if the
Cabinet is to manage impulsive mankind. As he finely says, we are
professors of human nature; if only some University would give us a
title and some initials to follow our name, say P.H.N., people might
believe that we knew something of it. But the attitude of the State in
these matters is steadfast enough. It recognises us as servants rather
than as citizens; if in our later years we come upon hard times, we can
be given, through the Civil List, pensions which rescue us from the
indignities of the poorhouse, but no more. Mostly these pensions benefit
our heirs, but the offering is so small that it shocks; it is like
tipping an archbishop. Thus Mr W. B. Yeats enjoys a pension of L150, Mr
Joseph Conrad, of L100. Why give us pensions at all if they must be
alms? One cannot be dignified on L100 a year; one can be dignified on
L5000 a year, because the world soon forgets that you ride a gift horse
if that horse is a fine, fat beast. The evidence is to be found in the
retiring pensions of our late Lord Chancellors, who receive L5000 a
year, of our Judges, L1000 to L3750, in the allowances made to
impoverished politicians, which attain L2000. Out of a total of L320,000
met by our civil list, literature, painting, science, research, _divide_
every year L1200. Nor do the immediate rewards show greater equality.
Lord Roberts was voted L100,000 for his services in South Africa; Mr
Thomas Hardy has not yet been voted anything for _The Dynasts_.

The shame of literature is carried on even into following generations.
The present Lord Nelson, who is not a poor man, for he o