Although Mr. Longfellow is credited with the opinion that Oscar Wilde is destined to make his mark as a poet, and although others have declared him to be a young man of grand poetic promise, we still cling to the popular judgment of the man and his work as being essentially the true one thus far. And notwithstanding that we deprecate, as much as any, all unmannerly gibes and epithets as tending to our own harm the most, still we claim that Mr. Wilde is a proper subject for reasonable satire and even ridicule, in all that in him is plainly exaggerated and absurd, - which is by no means little. For it is only in this way that the public is permitted to defend itself against the cant of his sentiment and the sophistry of his pretence. As a matter of taste (and we but repeat the opinions of other judges who are more competent to decide), we by no means believe him to be a man of "fine poetic achievement," any more than of "grand poetic promise." One who considers the vast amount of mediocre and passable poetry daily ground out by the periodical press, will be shy of putting any great hopes upon such insincere matter as the most of Mr. Wilde's verses. Why, if we will but look into our own hearts, if we will but consider the mass of often excellent and promising poetry annually produced from our own midst, and then consider how little of this will ever grow and blossom into any worthy fruition, we will necessarily be cautious hereafter in staking any great hopes on any other amateur, such as Oscar Wilde even. So much for any claims Mr. Wilde may have upon us for any promise or any achievement of his own. Aside from these considerations, society justly claims and exercises the right of providing laws of social conduct for its members and of punishing infringements of these laws. Mr. Wilde has infringed these laws; and the public has passed and is executing judgment upon him in its own way; a way somewhat harsh and severe it must be admitted, and sometimes reprehensibly so, but on the whole entirely just, we claim. Society, in a technical sense, may have foolishly coddled and patronized this nice young man, but the genuine public has expressed its emphatic disapproval of such proceedings. If Mr. Wilde is sincere (and there are grave and justifiable reasons for doubting this), then all that is to be said is that his ideals of right and beauty differ from those of most men; and that most men will, as usual, resist the imposition of these ideals upon themselves until convinced that they are preferable to those generally held.