16 MARCH 1962, Page 13

ARNOLD L. HASKELL Dr. Leavis's lecture, given its full text

in your last issue, is a demonstration of ill-mannered, self-centred and destructive adolescent behaviour that will surely be of interest to the psychologist.

The whole lecture consists of variations on the statement that he, Dr. Leavis, is always right in his pronouncements, that he represents the essen- tial Cambridge, etc. etc.

It is particularly revealing that a notoriously bad stylist should attack Snow for a lack of style.

This is the classic case of the confined critic subconsciously anxious about his own creative sterility attempting to break into `the world class' through attacking someone who is in `the world class.' And when it.comes to cliché, Dr. Leavis reveals himself a master.