SIR,—In Mr. Wain's article on Housman in your issue of
March 25 there was a remark which one would have thought would have drawn the fire of your readers before now : I refer to the statement that Bentley left 'detailed proof of his imbecility' in his emendations of Paradise Lost. It is a shocking thing to find this easy denigration of a great man inserted, as a mere aside, in your usually so distinguished columns.
I have read Bentley's Paradise Lost only in extract, but do not hesitate to commit myself to the view that it is the aberration of a power- ful and brilliant intellect, concerned to display its powers even at the cost of misusing them. But, not to labour the point, genius must be allowed its aberrations, and if the author of the Dissertation on, the Epistles of .Phalaris is to be considered an imbecile on such grounds, what shall be said of the rest of us—and of Mr. Wain?—Yours faithfully,
G. F. C. PLOWDEN Oxford & Cambridge University Club, Pall Mall, S.W.!
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