MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
TT would be an interesting and indeed a salutary task to .i. compile an anthology of false judgements. The wise do not readily commit themselves to prophecy, whereas the fore- casts of fools have often proved correct. I am suspicious of the man who says, " I warned them, but they would not listen," since such statements are less a proof of prevision than a sign that this man's opinions do not carry weight. Assuredly one of the main symptoms of Winston Churchill's greatness is that he has never indulged in the weak gesture of " I told you so." How foolish do ad personal forecasts seem in later years! I recall, when I hear bards boasting, a conversation which took place between Samuel Rogers and the young Tennygon more than a hundred years ago. They were walking arm in arm together down St. James's Street. " How seldom," remarked Tennyson, " can any poet be certain of immortality during his own life-time! " Rogers was silent for a moment and then he squeezed the younger poet's arm. " / am, my dear Mr. Tennyson." Yet who today reads 7acqueline or the Pleasures of Memory? In fifty years from now that unfortunate remark may well be the only thing, apart from his breakfast- parties, that is remembered about Samuel Rogers.
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