They are more and more full of merely sensuous beauty, mere word-painting, mere word-hunting.

The desire of finding something worth saying gives place more and more to that of saying something in a new fashion.

As the originality of thought (which accompanies only vigorous moral purpose) decreases, the attempt at originality of language increases.

Manner, in short, has taken the place of matter.

The art, it may be, of his latest poems is greatest: but it has been expended on the most unworthy themes.