26 APRIL 1946, Page 14

SIR,—I protest at the charge raised by Mr. Vere Cotton

against the "younger school of critics" in his letter on Alfred Stevens. Recognition of virtue is not the prerogative of an old generation. For us, we may be an impatient generation but we are not a proud one. There is more reverence in us than we are given credit for. Not all of it, however, is given to the " music, art, literature, drama, religion or politics " of our parents' generation. There are many who know that, in Sir Thomas Browne's words, as 'Iniquity comes with long strides upon us . . . great examples grow thin and to be fetched from the past world." From the future we make it will be seen what we have reverenced. That may sound pompous, but Mr. Cotton is sickeningly inaccurate.—Yours truly,