Page:Literary Lapses - Leacock - 1919.djvu/193

  harp." This is crossed out, and below it appears, "Fair Lydia,  my earthly harp." This again is erased, and under it appears, "Fair, should my earthly harp. This again is struck out with a despairing stroke, and amended to read: "Fair Lydia, my earthly harp." So that finally, when the lines appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine (1845) in their ultimate shape—" Fair Edith, when with fluent pen," etc., etc.—one can realize from what a desperate congelation the fluent pen had been so perseveringly rescued.

There can be little doubt of the deleterious effect occasioned both to public and private morals by this deliberate exaltation of mental susceptibility on the part of the early Victorian. In many cases we can detect the evidences of incipient paresis. The undue access of emotion frequently assumed a pathological character. The sight of a daisy, of a withered leaf or an upturned sod, seemed to disturb the poet's mental equipoise. Spring unnerved him. The lambs distressed him. The flowers made him cry. The daffodils made him laugh. Day dazzled him. Night frightened him.

This exalted mood, combined with the