I Am 'too Fiery'... Yet

Pain Has No Effect But To Steal Some Of My Time.

How Anyone Can Remain A Catholic - I Mean Who Has Ever Been Aroused To Think, And Is Not Biased By The Partialities Of Childish Years - After Seeing Catholicism Here In Italy I Cannot Conceive.

Certainly I Do Not Wish That Instead Of These Masters I Had Read Baby Books, Written Down To Children, And With Such Ignorant Dullness That They Blunt The Sense And Corrupt The Tastes Of The Still Plastic Human Being. But I Do Wish That I Had Read No Books At All Till Later - That I Had Lived With Toys, And Played In The Open Air. Children Should Not Cull The Fruits Of Reflection And Observation Early, But Expand In The Sun, And Let Thoughts Come To Them. They Should Not Through Books Antedate Their Actual Experiences.

If Anything Can Be Invented More Excruciating Than An English Opera, Such As Was The Fashion At The Time I Was In London, I Am Sure No Sin Of Mine Deserves The Punishment Of Bearing It.

Nature Provides Exceptions To Every Rule.