Page:Through the torii (IA throughtorii00noguiala).pdf/137

I often reflect upon the matter of Wilde’s imprisonment, and wonder if it was not also the kindness of Great Nature to teach him the lesson of humanity; however, I cannot help feeling she was rather cruel when he was forced to learn it through Humility. He says: “As I found it, I want to keep it. I must do so. It is the one thing that has in it the elements of life, of a new life, a Vita Nuova for me.” And he declares: “And the first thing that I have got to do is to free myself from any possible bitterness of feeling against the world.” It is from such language that I admit even the name of greatness for Wilde, and am glad to forget the greater parts of stories, plays, poems and essays which always tired me; it is true that, if he had been the man who understood life and humanity as he did in the later dates, he would have written great books already in his younger age; but, as I said before, when he soared into the higher, nobler realization of his real self, his mind and strength had gone too far down and were too crushed for actual rising. Let me say here that he began life as an artist (to use his beloved word) and died,