I suppose it is some lingering traces of the Bladesover tradition to me
that makes this combination of letters and pills seem so incongruous,
just as I suppose it is a lingering trace of Plutarch and my
ineradicable boyish imagination that at bottom our State should be
wise, sane and dignified, that makes me think a country which leaves
its medical and literary criticism, or indeed any such vitally
important criticism, entirely to private enterprise and open to the
advances of any purchaser must be in a frankly hopeless condition.
These are ideal conceptions of mine.
As a matter of fact, nothing would be more entirely natural and
representative of the relations of learning, thought and the economic
situation in the world at the present time than this cover of the
_Sacred Grove_—the quiet conservatism of the one element embedded in
the aggressive brilliance of the other; the contrasted notes of bold
physiological experiment and extreme mental immobility.