Mr. Wilde is not entirely without humor, as his Boston Music Hall audience knows; and therefore it may not be altogether hoping a hopeless hope to hope that, if he really is in earnest and is serious in his "movement," he may in time be brought to see the absurdity of his position in this country, and to appreciate the fact that he is really doing more harm than good to the cause he professes to have at heart. Our hopes in this way are brightened by some recent utterances of his given in the course of a newspaper interview, wherein Mr. Wilde shows so much discernment and just appreciation that it almost seems that a mere statement of his case to him by an impartial friend would convince him of his error and induce him to withdraw from his unfortunate enterprise. When questioned as to his famous opinion about the Atlantic, he explained it (we are told) as follows: "Oh, that unfortunate saying! It will become historic, I suppose," and the long curls shook, and the whole frame of the aesthete quivered, as he enjoyed a hearty laugh. "You know I wanted to see a big storm. I am very fond of the sea, and I have been at sea in very rough weather. I wanted to see the fury of an Atlantic gale." And to the question as to what reception he had met with from his audiences, he answered: "If you mean those scholars at Boston (laughing heartily), that was a bit of school-boy fun not meant in any sort of malice." Then he entered upon an explanation of his mission in America, respecting many of the admirable platitudes of his lecture here, and praising the American character and our possibilities for the future.

For all of this, we will venture to say that Mr. Wilde fails to appreciate the essential mistake of his attitude before the public. His claim is that of a teacher, and as a teacher all are agreed he is not a success. There is an ingenuous egotism in Mr. Wilde's claim of this sort that would be amusing if it were not pitiful. Oscar Wilde has as yet done no sure work or presented any original thought which gives him any just claim upon us. The implied comparison of case with the treatment accorded such poets as Keats by the public is not only silly, it is presumptuous. And although we believe there is a reaction setting in in public sentiment against such an extreme of ridicule as has previously been showered upon him, and however much one may feel disposed to share in this reaction, no impartial judge can go to the extent of encouraging this young poet from London in his course in the face of these considerations.