From Oscar Wilde's *The Critic as Artist* (1891). Select the word that fits the blank. "The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except ______."

Wilde's paradox: the public claims tolerance but *fails* to tolerate the very thing that ought to be most welcomed. The only thing it cannot forgive is the truly exceptional — *genius*. This follows the previous sentence's logic (the public is at ease only with mediocrity). Genius makes the public uneasy, hence the unforgivable charge. - The other three options are conventional vices that *would* normally be the unforgivable thing. Wilde's wit is to invert the expectation.