Page:In the dozy hours, and other papers.djvu/226

 212 who elucidates a text—and that text, evolution—for six pages at a breath, or Michael, who listens and "smiles." Even the occasional intermissions, when "Baldwin shook his head," or "they took a turn in silence," or "Carlo's voice trembled," or "Dorothy pointed to the moors," do little to relieve the general tension. It is no more possible to support conversation on this high and serious level than it is possible to nourish it on Mr. Wilde's brilliant and merciless epigrams. Those sparkling dialogues in which Cyril might be Vivian, and Vivian, Cyril; or Gilbert might be Ernest, and Ernest, Gilbert, because all alike are Mr. Wilde, and speak with his voice alone, dazzle us only to betray. They are admirable pieces of literary workmanship; they are more charming and witty than any contemporaneous essays. But if we will place by their side those few and simple pages in which Landor permits Montaigne and Joseph Scaliger to gossip together for a brief half hour at breakfast time, we will better understand the value of an element which Mr. Wilde excludes—humanity, with all its priceless sympathies and foibles.