" That
little word "some" will settle the epigram writer's business, and an
interesting form of literature will disappear.
Not that in some respects its disappearance will fail to arouse regret.
These books amused very many people in the writing, and they never did
very much harm. And it is something to have a universal topic that every
one can write on, just as it is stimulating to have a universal appetite
like eating, or a universal accomplishment like walking. How many other
subjects besides Woman have we on which the schoolboy and the sage can
write with equal confidence, fluency, and approach to the truth?
Possibly even women will regret that they are no longer the subject of
universal comment. Who knows? A woman will forgive injury, but never
indifference.
XII
THE FANTASTIC TOE
When we reach the year 1910 [Harding dreamt he was reading in the
_Weekly Review_ for 1952], we find the art of dancing well on its way
toward establishing itself as the predominant mode of expression. The
next few years marked a tremendous advance. The graceful _danseuses_ who
interpreted Mendelssohn's "Spring Song," Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony,
and Shakespeare's "Tempest" were the pioneers of a vast movement.
Pages:
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93