Beerbohm (then an undergraduate at Oxford) feels something near to reverence toward the
Catholic diabolist Enoch Soames, seeing as how the man from Preston has published one book of
stories and has another book of poems forthcoming, but over time, Enoch himself becomes more
and more morose and unsatisfied that he shall never see his own work appreciated in future
years.
— Michael Main
A hundred years hence! Think of it! If I could come back to life THEN—just for a few
hours—and go to the reading-room and READ! Or, better still, if I could be projected
now, at this moment, into that future, into that reading-room, just for this one
afternoon! I'd sell myself body and soul to the Devil for that!