. . . . . . Ne pinger ne scolpir fin più che queti L'anima volta a quell' amor divino Ch'aperse a prender noi in croce le braccia. [Illustration: "DER WINTER" Drawing by Eduard von Steinle] No other member of Leighton's family was ever known to have been an artist, and neither his parents nor his sisters pretended to any knowledge of painting; but respecting literature he had an interest in common with both his sisters, also a very strong sympathy existed between Mrs. Matthews and Leighton in their love for music. In answer to a letter from Mrs. Orr relating to Mr. Augustine Birrell's well-known book, Leighton wrote, "I have read 'Obiter Dicta,' and am much charmed with its delicate humour and ease of its style. I thought 'Truth Seekers' charmingly written." With reference, however, to the Browning chapter he continues:-- Browning's obscurity hides a shorthand of which he keeps the key in _his_ pocket. A matter of form, _not_ of matter, as "O.D." hath it. Browning is not abstruse; he is a _deep_ thinker, who _therefore_ (_vide_ "O.D.") requires obscure language; he is a most ingenious dialectician and a subtle analyst; but he is not a great poet on _that_ account--he is a great poet because of his magnificent central heat, and the surface of interests over which he sheds it. All this is rather late in the day to remark, and one would not be exasperated by his friends if one had not a sort of feeling that they _have_ done something to mar him. You say he would not be obscure if he _knew_ it?--_distinguons_. His obscurity is not intentional--of course--it is inherent in a style which is strongly personal, and therefore sincere--but is it in no degree _wilful_?--does he _not_ accept, virtually, some such (absolutely false) view of his obscurity as "O.D.'s"? A pity it certainly is; Browning is the last man who in his heart _wishes_ to touch only the few--nobody knows better than he does that that is not the characteristic of the greatest poets, and that not for that is a poet's soul kindled to a white heat. Meanwhile, here _is_ the fact that men of average culture and average brains (I claim both, for an example), and _desirous_ of _understanding_, as well as full of admiration for his powers, often get at his meaning only by considerable effort, and sometimes not at all, and that not because the thought is obscure, but because it is wilfully written in cypher. The following letter to a friend of his sister's contains a criticism of Leighton's on Goethe's _Sprüche_ under the head of "Kunst":-- _Private._] 2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W., 17/8/91.