They should not depress him quite, but if they
are long unanimous in holding him cheap, he is warned, and had better
withdraw from the struggle. He is either incompetent, or he has the
makings of a Browning. He is a genius born too soon. He may readily
calculate the chances in favour of either alternative.
So much by way of not damping all neophytes equally: so much we may say
about success before talking of the easy ways that lead to failure. And
by success here is meant no glorious triumph; the laurels are not in our
thoughts, nor the enormous opulence (about a fourth of a fortunate
barrister's gains) which falls in the lap of a Dickens or a Trollope.
Faint and fleeting praise, a crown with as many prickles as roses, a
modest hardly-gained competence, a good deal of envy, a great deal of
gossip--these are the rewards of genius which constitute a modern
literary success. Not to reach the moderate competence in literature is,
for a professional man of letters of all work, something like failure.
But in poetry to-day a man may succeed, as far as his art goes, and yet
may be unread, and may publish at his own expense, or not publish at all.
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