cxl MEMOIR 



bracing weather ; not to the very vain ; not to the owlishly wise, 

 who cannot have their dogmas canvassed ; not to the painfully 

 refined, whose sentiments become articles of faith. The spirit in 

 which he could write that he was ' much revived by having an 

 opportunity of abusing Whistler to a knot of his special admirers,' 

 is a spirit apt to be misconstrued. He was not a dogmatist, 

 even about Whistler. ' The house is full of pretty things,' he 



wrote, when on a visit ; ' but Mrs. 's taste in pretty things 



has one very bad fault : it is not my taste.' And that was the 

 true attitude of his mind ; but these eternal differences it was 

 his joy to thresh out and wrangle over by the hour. It was no 

 wonder if he loved the Greeks ; he was in many ways a Greek 

 himself ; he should have been a sophist and met Socrates ; he 

 would have loved Socrates, and done battle with him staunchly 

 and manfully owned his defeat ; and the dialogue, arranged by 

 Plato, would have shone even in Plato's gallery. He seemed in 

 talk aggressive, petulant, full of a singular energy ; as vain you 

 would have said as a peacock, until you trod on his toes, and 

 then you saw that he was at least clear of all the sicklier 

 elements of vanity. Soundly rang his laugh at any jest against 

 himself. He wished to be taken, as he took others, for what 

 was good in him without dissimulation of the evil, for what 

 was wise in him without concealment of the childish. He 

 hated a draped virtue, and despised a wit on its own defence. 

 And he drew (if I may so express myself) a human and 

 humorous portrait of himself with all his defects and quali- 

 ties, as he thus enjoyed in talk the robust sports of the in- 

 telligence ; giving and taking manfully, always without pre- 

 tence, always with paradox, always with exuberant pleasure ; 

 speaking wisely of what he knew, foolishly of what he knew 

 not ; a teacher, a learner, but still combative ; picking holes in 

 what was said even to the length of captiousness, yet aware 

 of all that was said rightly; jubilant in victory, delighted by 

 defeat : a Greek sophist, a British schoolboy. 



Among the legends of what was once a very pleasant spot, 

 the old Savile Club, not then divorced from Savile Row, there 

 are many memories of Fleeming. He was not popular at first, 



