The same gentlemanly indifference to his plebeian readers is diffused all through Matthew Arnold's writing, of course. He casually disposes of popularity: Some secrets may the poet tell For the world loves new ways; To tell too deep ones is not well,-- It knows not what he says. [Footnote: See _In Memory of Obermann._] Mrs. Browning probably has her own success in mind when she makes the young poetess, Aurora Leigh, recoil from the fulsome praise of her readers. Browning takes the same attitude in _Sordello,_ contrasting Eglamor, the versifier who servilely conformed to the taste of the mob, with Sordello, the true poet, who despised it. In _Popularity_, Browning returns to the same theme, of the public's misplaced praises, and in _Pacchiarotto_ he outdoes himself in heaping ridicule upon his readers. Naturally the coterie of later poets who have prided themselves on their unique skill in interpreting Browning have been impressed by his contempt for his readers. Perhaps they have even exaggerated it. No less contemptuous of his readers than Browning was that other Victorian, so like him in many respects, George Meredith. It would be interesting to make a list of the zoological metaphors by which the Victorians expressed their contempt for the public. Landor characterized their criticisms as "asses' kicks aimed at his head." [Footnote: Edmund Gosse, _Life of Swinburne_, p. 103.] Browning alternately represented his public cackling and barking at him. [Footnote: See Thomas J. Wise, Letters, Second Series, Vol. 2, p. 52.] George Meredith made a dichotomy of his readers into "summer flies" and "swinish grunters." [Footnote: _My Theme_.] Tennyson, being no naturalist, simply named the public the "many-headed beast." [Footnote: _In Memoriam_.] In America there has been less of this sort of thing openly expressed by genuine poets. Emerson is fairly outspoken, telling us, in _The Poet_, how the public gapes and jeers at a new vision. But one must go to our border-line poets to find the feeling most candidly put into words. Most of them spurn popularity, asserting that they are too worthwhile to be appreciated. They may be even nauseated by the slight success they manage to achieve, and exclaim, Yet to know That we create an Eden for base worms! If the consciousness of recent writers is dominated by contempt for mankind at large, such a mood is expressed with more caution than formerly. Kipling takes men's stupidity philosophically. [Footnote: See _The Story of Ung._] Edgar Lee Masters uses a fictional character as a mask for his remarks on the subject. [Footnote: See _Having His Way._] Other poets have expressed themselves with a degree of mildness. [Footnote: See Watts-Dunton, _Apollo in Paris;_ James Stephens, _The Market;_ Henry Newbolt, _An Essay in Criticism;_ William Rose Benet, _People._] But of course Ezra Pound is not to be suppressed. He inquires,