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Original paragraph in
The Advertiser - Monday, May 27, 1895
The Advertiser - Monday, May 27, 1895
Most similar paragraph from
The South Australian Chronicle - Saturday, June 1, 1895
The South Australian Chronicle - Saturday, June 1, 1895
Difference
The Master of Balliol was one day conversing on ethics. His friend propounded what he believed to be a difficult question. "Do you think,"
said he "that a good man could ever look happy on the rack?" "Well," replied Jowett, with a judicial air, "I think on the whole he might - that is, if he
were a very good man and it were a very bad rack." I have quoted the foregoing because it seems singularly a propos to the attitude of the press towards
Oscar Wilde just now. Not content with complaining that Mr. Wilde looks miserable on the rack at the police court, they invite us to infer his guilt from
the fact. How they would have him look I can't imagine. Even the most blameless of beings might be excused for displaying considerable emotion whilst
listening to such allegations as those of the self-confessed blackmailers, Parker and Atkins. One wouldn't hang a dog on the word of these men, and if the
case rested on their depositions alone Wilde would soon be free. But there are many other witnesses - hotelkeepers, chambermaids, landladies, and fellow
lodgers of Taylor's protéges who are welding together a chain of circumstantial evidence which Sir Edward Clarke, who will conduct the defence, may find
it impossible to destroy. Unless forced to do so by circumstances it is not the intention of the Government to drag Lord Alfred Douglas into this
unpleasant business, though the evidence shows him to have been present at most of Oscar's peculiar symposiums. The smart London tradesmen and
hotelkeepers are even sadder than the æsthetes over the fall of the apostle of culture. He owed money everywhere, though earning a big income nowadays
from his plays. But only a millionaire's resources would have stood such extravagance as his. A dinner at the Savoy seldom cost him less that £40, and I
am told that his small party's bill at the Holborn Viaduct Hotel for the three days concluding the Queensberry trial amounted to £150 odd. Three writs
were found on him when he was arrested.
The Master of Balliol was one day conversing on ethics. His friend propounded what he believed to be a difficult question. "Do you
think," said he "that a good man could ever look happy on the rack?" "Well," replied Jowett, with a judicial air, "I think on the whole he might - that
is, if he were a very good man and it were a very bad rack." I have quoted the foregoing because it seems singularly apropos to the attitude of the press
towards Oscar Wilde just now. Not content with complaining that Mr. Wilde looks miserable on the rack at the police court, they invite us to infer his
guilt from the fact. How they would have him look I can't imagine. Even the most blameless of beings might be excused for displaying considerable emotion
whilst listening to such allegations as those of the self-confessed blackmailers, Parker and Atkins. One wouldn't hang a dog on the word of these men, and
if the case rested on their depositions alone Wilde would soon be free. But there are many other witnesses - hotelkeepers, chambermaids, landladies, and
fellow lodgers of Taylor's protéges who are welding together a chain of circumstantial evidence which Sir Edward Clarke, who will conduct the defence, may
find it impossible to destroy. Unless forced to do so by circumstances it is not the intention of the Government to drag Lord Alfred Douglas into this
unpleasant business, though the evidence shows him to have been present at most of Oscar's peculiar symposiums. The smart London tradesmen and
hotelkeepers are even sadder than the æsthetes over the fall of the apostle of culture. He owed money everywhere, though earning a big income nowadays
from his plays. But only a millionaire's resources would have stood such extravagance as his. A dinner at the Savoy seldom cost him less that £40, and I
am told that his small party's bill at the Holborn Viaduct Hotel for the three days concluding the Queensberry trial amounted to £150 odd. Three writs
were found on him when he was arrested.
There is a philosophic moral to the Wilde case which some of us would do well not to overlook. Oscar was not always the combination of
artist and brute he is to-day. Walter Pater was his evil genius. It was that accomplished stylist's gospel of epicureanism (carried to the excess), which
has handed him the dock. Wilde's case is the natural and regular physiological result of a literary and æsthetic tendency. It demonstrates the influence
which a cultivation of certain literary faculties in the direction of refined sensualism can exercise over the intelligence and over the morals of men
undoubtedly gifted. Fatal degeneracy will ensue when intellectual effort is made the result and not the principle of sensations. Finally, for heaven's
sake don't let us be humbugs about this Wilde trial. Mr. Jerome points out in his own pleasant fashion that whilst everybody has been loudly eulogising
the St. James's Gazette for not reporting the Wilde case, nobody has been observed reading that rigidly virtuous journal. It was just the same at the time
of the "Maiden Tribute." We howled with horror at Stead's filthy narrative and eagerly bought every fresh issue of the Pall Mall Gazette containing it.
Moreover, society will do well to remember that there may be such a thing as over reticence. In our desire not to touch pitch and get defiled we decent
people have speechlessly conspired together not to see the facts which have led at last to this esclandre. In doing so we absolutely protected the gang.
What society now demands is the absolute extinction of the Oscarian cult. This can only be achieved by putting deadly fear into the hearts of two or three
hundred well-known characters, and to manage the work efficiently a certain amount of publicity is imperatively necessary.
There is a philosophic moral to the Wilde case which some of us would do well not to overlook. Oscar was not always the combination of
artist and brute he is to-day. Walter Pater was his evil genius. It was that accomplished stylist's gospel of epicureanism (carried to the excess), which
has handed him the dock. Wilde's case is the natural and regular physiological result of a literary and æsthetic tendency. It demonstrates the influence
which a cultivation of certain literary faculties in the direction of refined sensualism can exercise over the intelligence and over the morals of men
undoubtedly gifted. Fatal degeneracy will ensue when intellectual effort is made the result and not the principle of sensations. Finally, for heaven's
sake don't let us be humbugs about this Wilde trial. Mr. Jerome points out in his own pleasant fashion that whilst everybody has been loudly eulogising
the St. James's Gazette for not reporting the Wilde case, nobody has been observed reading that rigidly virtuous journal. It was just the same at the time
of the "Maiden Tribute." We howled with horror at Stead's filthy narrative and eagerly bought every fresh issue of the Pall Mall Gazette containing it.
Moreover, society will do well to remember that there may be such a thing as over reticence. In our desire not to touch pitch and get defiled we decent
people have speechlessly conspired together not to see the facts which have led at last to this esclandre. In doing so we absolutely protected the gang.
What society now demands is the absolute extinction of the Oscarian cult. This can only be achieved by putting deadly fear into the hearts of two or three
hundred well-known characters, and to manage the work efficiently a certain amount of publicity is imperatively necessary.