Page:The spirit of place, and other essays, Meynell, 1899.djvu/82

68 the approbation bestowed upon their diffidence, and into idleness and unconcern by the praises given to their attention." It would not be possible to say a smaller thing with greater dignity and gentleness. It is worth while to quote this prose of a "poet" who lived between the centuries, if only in order to suggest the chastening thought, "It is a pity that no one, however little he may have to say, says it now in this form!" The little, so long as it is reasonable, is so well suited in this antithesis and logic. Is there no hope that journalism will ever take again these graces of unanswerable argument? No: they would no longer wear the peculiar aspect of adult innocence that was Crabbe's.