[226] _Adam Bede_, I, 245. It could not be said of him as it was of Vincy in the above connection,--“The difficult task of knowing another soul is not for young gentlemen whose consciousness is chiefly made up of their own wishes.” [227] _Letters_, II, 501. In another he speaks of the fine irony of French criticism, which “instructs without wounding any but the vanitous person”: and adds that “England has little criticism beyond the expression of likes and dislikes, the stout vindication of an old conservatism of taste.” _Ibid._, 569. [228] _The Egoist_, 43. (The “leg” of course referring to Mrs. Jenkinson’s famous epigram). [229] _The Egoist_, 113. [230] _Sandra Belloni_, 157. [231] _Ibid._, 153. [232] _One of Our Conquerors_, 415. [233] _Ibid._, 195. [234] _Vittoria_, 373. [235] _Beauchamp’s Career_, 369. [236] _Sandra Belloni_, 68. This is followed by a fling at the “alliance with Destiny”, which reminds us of our recent American slogan of “Manifest Destiny.” [237] _Letters_, II, 555. To Leslie Stephen, 1904. [238] _An Amazing Marriage_, 480. [239] _Ibid._, 147. Cf. also citations in the first part of this chapter. [240] _Middlemarch_, I, 142. She also comments as follows on the undeniably just statement of Jermyn to Mrs. Transome that Harold should be told the secret of his birth: “Perhaps some of the most terrible irony of the human lot is this of a deep truth coming to be uttered by lips that have no right to it.” _Felix Holt_, II, 242. [241] _Diana of the Crossways_, 423. [242] _Evan Harrington_, 117. [243] _Evan Harrington_, 137. [244] _Rhoda Fleming_, 301. Later, however, an equivalent amount, placed in his hands in trust for another purpose, conveniently paid this debt. “It was enough to make one in love with civilization.” _Ibid._, 326. [245] _The Tragic Comedians_, 195. [246] _Richard Feverel_, 8. [247] _Ibid._, 322. [248] Van Laun: _History of French Literature_, II, 27. [249] Cf. also the riot of personalities in Blackwood’s, Frazer’s, and other periodicals of their time. [250] Butler’s etchings in _The Way of All Flesh_, are also from personal sources. [251] Freeman observes, “Peacock abused contemporary poets generally, the Lake School particularly, and Southey in especial, for eighteen years.” _Thomas Love Peacock, A Critical Study_, 141. [252] _Melincourt_, 106. [253] _Melincourt_, 108. [254] _Nightmare Abbey_, 23. That this was a typical experience is well known. Cf. Browning’s _Lost Leader_. [255] _Ibid._, 49. [256] _Melincourt_, 80. In his Review of Southey’s _Colloquies of Society_, Macaulay points out the Laureate’s two unique faculties,--“of believing without a reason, and of hating without a provocation.” [257] Quoted in his biography, by the Earl of Lytton, I, 347. The Ettrick Shepherd tries to rally Tickler out of his glumness by the argument,--“Everybody kens ye’re a man of genius, without your pretending to be melancholy.” [258] _Beauchamp’s Career_, 39.