Proofed and corrected from the original edition for enjoyable reading. (Worth every penny
spent!)
***
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
-Oscar Wilde
In its earliest form, the epigram was indeed, but mere writing upon a wall, but the modern epigram is distinguished by its particular brilliancy. It embodies the very quintessence of the thoughts of the writer. The early Greek epigram did not aim at wit, or necessarily produce the feeling of surprise, which are essential characteristics of the modern one. The writer today who follows the Greek epigrammatist succeeds only in being dull.
Whatever may be thought of the writings of Oscar Wilde as a whole, it is certain that in his epigrams and aphorisms we have the very flower and blossom of his genius. Just as Rochefoucauld put together the best of his own ideas and adaptations of the thoughts of the ancients in his "Maxims"; as Franklin voiced the practical wisdom of his time in the sayings of "Poor Richard"; as Chateaubriand established for Joubert permanent fame in the "Pensées," so in this compilation the literary genius of Oscar Wilde is revealed as in no other way, and we may trace, through his writings, the gradual evolution from palpable insincerity and striving for effect, to conscious truth and literary expression for the sake of the idea conveyed rather than for the expression's sake. Flippancy, lightness of touch, dilettantism, were, after all, only masks worn for the time, although the wearer himself was conscious only of the impression created by the mask, forgetting there was, nevertheless, something behind the mask which gave it the appearance of life. Under the insouciance there was something real, something tangible — a message conveyed to those who were capable of receiving it, although in this strenuous life of the Twentieth Century, nine-tenths of the world receives its messages only over the ticker-tape of the stock market.
It is a thankless task, in a sordid age, to preach the gospel of beauty. It is like trying to describe the coloring of an orchid to a sightless child. Perhaps it may not fully accord with the ideas of the esthetes of whom Mr. Wilde was the recognized head to speak of a gospel of beauty, for it was one of his favorite apothegms that "Beauty cannot be taught; only revealed."
