years, two children had been born to him; yet instead of settling down
he appeared suddenly to have become wilder. In 1887 he accepted the
editorship of a lady's paper, _The Woman's World_, and was always
mocking at the selection of himself as the "fittest" for such a post:
he had grown noticeably bolder. I told myself that an assured income
and position give confidence; but at bottom a doubt began to form in
me. It can't be denied that from 1887-8 on, incidents occurred from
time to time which kept the suspicion of him alive, and indeed pointed
and strengthened it. I shall have to deal now with some of the more
important of these occurrences.
CHAPTER VIII
The period of growth of any organism is the most interesting and most
instructive. And there is no moment of growth in the individual life
which can be compared in importance with the moment when a man begins
to outtop his age, and to suggest the future evolution of humanity by
his own genius. Usually this final stage is passed in solitude:
_Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,_
_Sich ein Charakter in dem Strome der Welt._
After writing a life of Schiller which almost anyone might have
written, Carlyle retired for some years to Craigenputtoch, and then
brought forth _Sartor Resartus_, which was personal and soul-revealing
to the verge of eccentricity. In the same way Wagner was a mere
continuator of Weber in _Lohengrin_ and _Tannhaeuser_, and first came
to his own in the _Meistersinger_ and _Tristan_, after years of
meditation in Switzerland.
This period for Oscar Wilde began with his marriage; the freedom from
sordid anxieties allowed him to lift up his head and be himself.
Kepler, I think, it is who praises poverty as the foster-mother of
genius; but Bernard Palissy was nearer the truth when he
said:--_Pauvrete empeche bons esprits de parvenir_ (poverty hinders
fine minds from succeeding). There is no such mortal enemy of genius
as poverty except riches: a touch of the spur from time to time does
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