The Twilight of Dawn 



forty ? Everybody is famous then ; it is too common to be 

 worth mentioning. 



But fame when young, if there's a possibility 

 Of getting it, is worth the wear and tear : 

 It almost equals money or nobility 

 To help you to the candid world's esteem — 

 Their dinners, balls, and general civility. 



I quote from an vmpublished piece in ter%a r'lma^ written 

 when I was about eighteen, and, in confidence, I don't see 

 I write any better now than I did then. Criticism, and 

 prudence, and acquired facts to work upon, are all, or nearly 

 all, a man gets by years, more than he had when he was a 

 boy ; perhaps a little more mental endurance, but I don't 

 think the actual creative energy of the mind increases much 

 after fifteen or sixteen. 



If I ever write a novel, I will certainly begin with my 

 hero at seventeen, and leave him at twenty very much the 

 same as I found him, in a practical point of view, but 

 having gone through a splendid career of romance and 

 experience. 



By the way, "Vivian Grey" is an excellent instance of 

 the success of this. With an older hero, whom you are led 

 to believe is in every way fitted to become a prominent man 

 in his country, you begin, towards the end of the third 

 volume, to wonder why he is not Secretary of State, or 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and the fact that these ofBces 

 are filled by other functionaries, destroys the truth-seeming 

 of the tale ; whereas the triumphs and glory of a boy are all 

 permitted to be legitimately in the clouds, and we look upon 

 them with the same un-matter-of-fact feelings as on a 

 gorgeous sunrise. 



Now I must tell you a little about how we have been 



291 T 



