heresies and pleasures easily. It may be that Mr Firbank has gone to school to Beardsley. But the real reason why they are not worried and feverish, as their predecessors were, is probably because the time has gone by when it is possible to get into that state. The generation of Beardsley and Wilde had been brought up on Ruskin and Tennyson; but the generation of Firbank and Van Vechten has been brought up on Beardsley and Wilde and their prejudices were destroyed early. The conviction of sin has been removed and it is possible for the corrupt to be amiable again. Their genre may be destined to grow dimmer and dimmer, but it at least fades away with a smile. In the meantime, as those qualities are growing rarer, let us enjoy their urbanity and taste.
