The character of our race rests indubitably upon that faith, and he
who lifts his voice, or directs his pen, to tear it down, had better
never have been born.

Your loving old
G.P.


[Footnote 1: Another diary that you should read by and by is that of
Henry Grabb Robinson.]



10


MY DEAR ANTONY,

In these letters I am never going to quote to you anything that does
not seem to me to rise to a level of merit well above ordinary proper
prose. There are many writers whose general correctness and
excellence is not to be questioned or denied whom I shall not select in
these letters for your particular admiration.

By and by, when your own love of literature impels you to excursions in
all directions, you may perhaps come to differ from my judgment, for
everyone's taste must vary a little from that of others.

English prose in its excellence follows the proportions manifested by the