Pagina 26 van 490

"Days in summer, Basil, are apt to linger," murmured Lord Henry.

"Perhaps you will tire sooner than he will. It is a sad thing to

think of, but there is no doubt that genius lasts longer than

beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to

over-educate ourselves. In the wild struggle for existence, we

want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds

with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.

The thoroughly well-informed man-that is the modern ideal. And

the mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing.

It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with

everything priced above its proper value. I think you will tire

first, all the same. Some day you will look at your friend, and

he will seem to you to be a little out of drawing, or you won't

like his tone of colour, or something. You will bitterly reproach

him in your own heart, and seriously think that he has behaved

very badly to you.