I have thought a great deal about this passage, also about a particularly shrewd remark made by, of all people, Bunny. 'Y'know', he said 'Julian is like one of those people that'll pick all his favorite chocolates out of the box and leave the rest.' This seems rather enigmatic on the face, but actually I cannot think of a better metaphor for Julian's personality. It is similar to another remark made to me by Georges Laforgue, on an occasion when I had been extolling Julian to the skies. 'Julian', he said curtly, 'will never be a scholar of the very first rate, and that is because he is only capable of seeing things on a selective basis.'
When I disagreed - sternuously - and asked what was wrong with focusing one's entire attention on only two things, if those two things were Art and Beauty, Laforgue relied: 'There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty - unless she is wed to something more meaningful - is always superficial. It is not that your Julian chooses solely to concentrate on certain, exalted things; it is that he chooses to ignore others equally as important.'