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The Victorian Age: The Rede Lecture for 1922

1922; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 110; Issue: 2751 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/110104a0

1476-4687

William Ralph Inge,

Joseph Conrad and Literature

IN choosing the Victorian Age as the subject of his Rede Lecture, Dean Inge afforded his audience ample occasion in which to enjoy the obiter dicta, which so frequently characterise his public utterances, and impart to them so piquant a flavour. It may be said the theme itself provided its opportunities. Its possibilities, in fact, of observations en passant, without a too obvious breach of continuity, are wellnigh limitless. The learned lecturer evidently revelled in the wealth and suggestiveness of his material, and the epigrams and aphorisms, at times, are almost coruscant in their brilliancy. Not that we would for a moment imply that the Dean's prelection in any way resembles the sermon of which King James remarked “that the tropes and metaphors of the speaker were like the brilliant wild flowers in a field of corn, very pretty, but which did very much hurt the corn.” The richness of the soil which the Dean undertook to cultivate ensured the wealth and vigour of his crop; his flowers do but enhance the beauty of the field.