between an elder and younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope, and glamor of life. That it should be so the world does not understand. It mocks at it and sometimes puts one into the pillory for it."
Subsequently his confidant, Harris, asked in private: "There is another point against you which you have not touched on yet: Gill asked you what you had in common with those serving men and stable boys? You have not explained that."
"Difficult to explain, Frank, isn't it, without the truth? . . . . "How weary I am of the whole thing, of the iaiie: da the struggling and the hatred. To see those people coming into the box one after the other to witness against me makes me sick. . . . Oh, it's terrible. I feel inclined to stretch out my hands and cry to them, ' Do what you will with me, in God's name, only do it quickly; cannot you see that I am worn out? If hatred gives you pleasure, indulge it.'"
In other conversations with Harris, Wilde justified his penchant, as narrated in the biography, as follows:
"There is no general rule of health; it is all personal, individual. . . . I only demand that freedom which I willingly concede to others. No one condemns another for preferring green to gold. Why should any taste be ostracised? Liking and disliking are not under our control. I want to choose the nourishment which suits my body and my soul."
"Each man ought to do what he likes, to develop as he will. . . . They punished me because I did not share their
