Those articles which do not call for
any particular comment receive none here.
On the wrapper of each number is to be found a sonnet, printed in a
rather aggressively Gothic type, beginning, "When whoso merely hath a
little thought." This sonnet is my performance; it had been suggested
that one or other of the proprietors of the magazine should write a
sonnet to express the spirit in which the publication was undertaken.
I wrote the one here in question, which met with general acceptance;
and I do not remember that any one else competed. This sonnet may not
be a good one, but I do not see why it should be considered
unintelligible. Mr. Bell Scott, in his "Autobiographical Notes,"
expressed the opinion that to master the production would almost need
a Browning Society's united intellects. And he then gave his
interpretation, differing not essentially from my own. What I meant
is this: A writer ought to think out his subject honestly and
personally, not imitatively, and ought to express it with directness
and precision; if he does this, we should respect his performance as
truthful, even though it may not be important. This indicated, for
writers, much the same principle which the P.R.B. professed for
painters,--individual genuineness in the thought, reproductive
genuineness in the presentment.
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