| Plato.—“ | Hippias. | Men do not commonly say so. |
| Socrates. | Who do not say so—those who know, or those who do not know? | |
| Hippias. | The multitude. | |
| Socrates. | Are then the multitude acquainted with truth? | |
| Hippias. | Certainly not. |
The answer is put into the mouth of the sophist; but put as an established fact, which he cannot possibly deny.[20]
[20] Plato: Hippias Major, 284 E. Steph.
[21] Wordsworth. “Poems of Sentiment and Reflection,” i. “Expostulation and Reply.”
[22] “Memorials of a Tour in Scotland. 1814. iii. Effusion.”
[23] See the Artist and Amateur’s Magazine, p. 248. The article named was written in dualogue, and in the passage alluded to “Palette,” an artist, points out to his companion “Chatworthy,” who represents the general public, that “next to the highest authorities in Art are the pure, natural, untainted, highly educated, and intelligent few” The argument is continued over some pages, but although the Magazine is not now readily accessible to the ordinary reader, it will not be thought necessary to go further into the discussion.
[24] Mr. Thomas Wakley, at this time M.P. for Finsbury, and coroner for Middlesex. He was the founder of the Lancet, and took a deep interest in medicine, which he at one time practised. I do not find, however, that he published any volume of poems, though he may well have been the author, as the letter seems to imply, of some occasional verses. He died in 1862.
[25] The references to this and the five passages following are (1) Burns, “The Twa Dogs;” (2) Milton, “Paradise Lost,” vi. 79; (3) Burns, “Death and Doctor Hornbook;” (4) Byron, “Hebrew Melodies,” “Oh! snatched away in beauty’s bloom;” (5) Campbell; and (6) Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound,” Act ii. sc. 1.
[26] It will be felt at once that the more serious and higher passages generally suffer most. But Stanfield, little as it may be thought, suffers grievously in the Academy, just as the fine passage from Campbell is ruined by its position between the perfect tenderness of Byron and Shelley. The more vulgar a picture is, the better it bears the Academy.