“I am a man of whom critics have never found anything good to say. […] Only once, as far as I remember, in all my lifetime have I experienced the pleasure of praise […]. That pleasure was beatific; and the praise that conferred it was meant for blame. It was that a critic said of me that I did not seem to be absolutely sure of my owm conclusions. Never, if I can help it, shall that critic’s eye ever rest on what I am now writing; for I owe a great pleasure to him […].”1