have used must have sounded fulsome flattery. But later on, I
asked:--

"Have you thought of a publisher for your verse?"

He shook his head and made a face at me.

"You must certainly publish those poems," I said; "you surely know
that they are unusually beautiful, and that you have no right to
keep them to yourself."

"Dear Emilia," he answered, "I like to hear this from you, but you
are mistaken. My poems are not so remarkable as you imagine; you are
too near a friend to be a fair judge. They are intensely
subjective,--that is, by the way, one of their faults; they reflect
me; therefore you, who know me well and care for me, find them
sympathetic. That's the whole of the tale."

"If I cared for you ten times more than I do," said I then, "I
should not be quite so blind as you suppose. But, if you doubt my
judgment, ask some one else, or compare the poems yourself with
other verse."

"Never!" he said. "How can you even suggest such a thing? Look here,
Emilia. A man has an ideal, a glimpse of something glittering up
there in highest Heaven; he tries to shape his vision into words.
When he afterwards turns to his work coldly, critically, how shall
he judge? He must take measure by the height of the ideal, not by
the achievement of another, even if that other be nearer Heaven than
himself."