11 NOVEMBER 1949, Page 16

Portrait of' Lita

SIR,—Since much of the world's great literature is concerned with por- traying human frailty, surely Messrs. Gordon Samuels and Burns arc unreasonable in asking a literary paper like the Spectator to place a ban on articles about it. Are we wrong to read Constant, Byron and Flaubert, or to plead, as Byron did of Rousseau, that they

knew How to make madness beautiful, and cast O'er erring deeds and thoughts a heavenly hue Of words" ?

If the idea which underlies Mr. Sanderson's " quasi-philosophic clap- trap" is that ii n'y a pas d'autre vertu que la vertu retrouvie he may well be wrong, but he errs in good company. Personally I was delighted with the article, and I hope you will allow Mr. Sanderson to write for