267

; so clear, so seemingly unstudied and
spontaneous, that people will not be diverted away from
the idea they enshrine—but the expression and the idea
are one with you, and the reader will not so much think
of the poet himself as of the immortal spirit of Beauty—
of which the poet is the servant.

tc Each is what the Abbe c Joseph Raux ' said poetry
ought to be, " the exquisite expression of an exquisite
impression "—but in your case it is still more—more
than an impression, it is a certain conviction that
beyond this visible world there is a world in which all
the highest ideals are realities. Or rather, I should
say that the highest ideals on earth are echoes of the
great unseen realities.

" This is the teaching the world needs ; and who
could resist such teaching when it comes in a form so
crystal clear as your poems, so commandingly and yet
persuasively beautiful;—and so brief that even the
busiest man cannot pretend he has ' no time ' to read it.

" But not only do your poems breathe the spirit of
chivalry at its highest and best, but also you bring back
some of the lost beauty from the heart of ancient Greece ;
some such poems as yours may have been sung to
beautiful music at Crotona in the garden by the sea,
where Pythagoras used to tell his pupils the story of
the age-long pilgrimage of the spirit."

JOHN LAW
" I can quite imagine such a book (the sonnets)—
being " discovered " and. becoming " the rage. " It