I will willingly pay the few hundreds of
pounds which the neglect of my works costs me in order to be let
alone and not plagued by the people who would come round me if I were
known. The probability is that I shall remain after my death as
obscure as I am now; if this be so, the obscurity will, no doubt, be
merited, and if not, my books will work not only as well without my
having been known in my lifetime but a great deal better; my follies
and blunders will the better escape notice to the enhancing of the
value of anything that may be found in my books. The only two things
I should greatly care about if I had more money are a few more
country outings and a little more varied and better cooked food.
[1882.]
P.S.--I have long since obtained everything that a reasonable man can
wish for. [1895.]
Posthumous Honours
I see Cecil Rhodes has just been saying that he was a lucky man,
inasmuch as such honours as are now being paid him generally come to
a man after his death and not before it. This is all very well for a
politician whose profession immerses him in public life, but the
older I grow the more satisfied I am that there can be no greater
misfortune for a man of letters or of contemplation than to be
recognised in his own lifetime. Fortunately the greater man he is,
and hence the greater the misfortune he would incur, the less
likelihood there is that he will incur it.
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