Finally we have to ask ourselves what is the precise value of this last legacy Oscar Wilde has left to us? I think it is just this. We have upon our shelves a piece of incomparable prose. I know of nothing written in recent years that comes anywhere near it as an almost flawless work of art. Nobody who cares for English literature or who understands in the least degree, what fine writing is and means, will ever neglect this minor classic. From another point of view also, it has its value. We who appreciate the immense genius of Oscar Wilde and mourn for a wrecked life and the extinction of a bright intellect, will care for and treasure this volume for its personal pathos, its high and serene beauty of expression, and also because, as a psychological document, it throws a greater light upon the extraordinary brain and personality of its author than anything he had written in the past. INDEX Æsthetic Movement, 7-9, 12, 19, 22, 29 Æsthetics-- Art and morality, 337-344 Art criticism distinguished from, 333 Meaning and scope of, 332 Ruskin's teaching regarding, 338-340 Wilde's belief in his vocation as to, 331; his writings, 333; his lectures, 334-336 America, Wilde's tour in, 18, 29; quotation from his lectures, 334-336 Anderson, Miss Mary, 199-200 _Apologia_, 269 Aristotle cited, 342 Art-- Art's sake, for, 345 Morality and, 337-344 Wilde's writings on, 333 _Ave Imperatrix_, 248-250 _Ballad of Reading Gaol_-- Criticisms of, 285-286 Dedication of, 287 Estimate of, 262, 283-284, 298 Quotations from, 287-297 Revision of, 286 Otherwise mentioned, 86, 273 Ballad parody, 266 _Ballade de Marguérite_, 264-265 Baudelaire, Charles, influence of, on Wilde, 245-246, 258, 273, 274, 282; quoted, 245, 252; _Danse Macabre_ quoted, 274-276 Baugham, E. A., quoted--on _Salomé_, 195-197 Beardsley, Aubrey, 40-41 Beeching, Canon, quoted--on _De Profundis_, 387-389 Berneval, Wilde's life at, 84 Bernhardt, Mme. Sarah, 161, 187-188; Wilde's sonnet to, 267 _Birthday of the Infanta, The_, 239 Boswell quoted, 373-374 _Chanson_, 265 _Charmides_, 263-264 Currie, Lady, quoted, 285-286 _Daily Chronicle_-- "Salomé" _Critique_ in, quoted, 190-192 Wilde's letters to, cited, 81-84 _Daily Mirror_ cited, 74 _Daily Telegraph_, extract from, 65-68 D'Aubrevilly, Barbey, quoted, 283 _De Profundis_-- Authenticity of, as prison-written, 71-76, 364-365 Biblical influence, 376-377 Christ as depicted in, 386-392 Estimate of, 362, 393 Extracts from, 359-360, 376, 378, 383-386, 390-391 Preface to, 366-367 Press criticisms on, 380 Publication and reception of, 362-363 Ross, R., on publication of, 363-366 Self-revelation in, 360, 379-386 Sincerity of, 382, 384-385 Style of, 371-373, 375-378; Subject matter of, 367-371 _Des Sponettes_, 269