THE PLAIN MAN'S LEONARDO
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—It was delightful to find that Mr. Philip Henderson, in reviewing my book about Leonardo, accepted the sug- gestion which it contains that I am a plain man and able to speak for all other plain men : delightful, because I have always wanted to be mistaken for a stockbroker but, until now, have never succeeded. How weary I became of the reviewers who told me that I was " too aesthetic," " period," " too refined " and even " etiolated " (a shrewd blow, that v.). But Mr. Henderson does agree that I am indeed the plain man : and it seems ungrateful, therefore, to explain that in almost all those passages of the book which irritated him, 1 was " talking sarcastic." Still, I beg you to let me say so. Otherwise, any of your readers who know me or some of my work may be startled to find that I prefer machinery to art and actually look forward to the disappearance of poetry from the world.
Mr. Henderson has taken me too solemnly. If I find that other reviewers have done so too, I shall at least have learned that irony must be underlined.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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