What.Next ?
THE announcement that we are threatened with a new Dark Age is not unfamiliar, but neither is it obsolete. We shall be hearing it again in many forms and at many lengths, in large philosophical surveys and in handbills ; but on the whole it is a topic which might be well left for some time to Sir Osbert Sitwell, who knows a good deal about it, has some vigorous proposals to make for getting beyond it, and in his writings on it acts on the old principle that the harsh- ness of the subject requires an infusion of mirth and humour. This " Letter " addressed to a young writer, about to -attempt the career of the artist in unpromising circumstances, is of proper pamphlet length. If we consider the position as it is here presented, an island or oasis of " the intelligent, the intellectual, above all, the creative," it must be admitted that Sir Osbert has a remarkably good all-round defence. His sallies are delivered with sharp and rapid enthusiasm against all sorts of antagonists. Two main enemies are distinguished at once: " the critic and the politician." But from time to time other powers of darkness fill the scene ; for instance, ' You must carry out a continual campaign against civil servants, dons, masters-of-hounds, schoolmasters, professional football players, and all friends to national sclerosis everywhere." In the manner of Cobbett, Sir Osbert occasionally takes a fancy to some individual as the very embodiment of what he wars with ; his contemporaries may turn his pages apprehensively, repeating what a poet laureate said on another occasion, " Who next will drop and disappear?"
From the defence, so to speak, Our hater of anarchy moves to a detailed attack, and offers his successor a plan for foxing those Philistines and destroying their morale. Incidentally, " during the Netherlands School of Painting Course, they should be taken by train, starting from London at midnight, to that flat part of East Anglia which somewhat resembles Holland in configuration, and there be made to lie for hours in a damp ditch, so as to observe the sun rise over the river from the correct angle." The quotation would hardly be necessary, the author's name being known, to warrant that
the "Letter " is exceedingly amusing; Sir Osbert requests its recipient to take it Seriously, and, ineed, swiftly as he goes from symptom to ,symptom of modern confusions, he opens many themes
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