LETTERS FROM 1866 TO 1872. 67 



of industry and application intense and un- 

 wearied ; he confesses his ambitions they are 

 for success ; he knows that he has the power 

 of success within him ; he tries for success 

 continually, and is as often beaten back, 

 because, though this he cannot understand, in 

 the way he tries success is impossible for him. 

 Let us run through this bundle of letters. 



One thing to him who reads the whole 

 becomes immediately apparent, though it is 

 not so clear from the extracts alone. It is the 

 self-consciousness of the writer as regards style. 

 That is because he is intended by nature to 

 become a writer. He thinks how he may put 

 things to the best advantage ; he understands 

 the importance of phrase ; he wants not only 

 to say a thing, but to say it in a striking and 

 uncommon manner. Later on, when he has 

 gotten a style to himself, he becomes more 

 familiar and chatty. Thus, for instance, the 

 boy speaks of the great organ at the Crystal 

 Palace : "To me music is like a spring of 

 fresh water in the midst of the desert to a 

 wearied Arab." He was genuinely and truly 

 fond of good music, and yet this phrase has in 



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