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15. Take the minister's grace over his dinner of salt herrings: "We thank thee, O Lord, for these, the very least o' thy mercies." I hope it was not necessary to expound the joke to the party round the dinner-table !

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16. An old Scottish lady being asked by a neighbour to explain guid mainners," replied thus: "Aweel, ye see, Janet, it's just like this. If you were to tak' a daunder down the road and to meet wi' Saint Peter, it would never dae for you to begin speakin' to him about cocks"; whereupon I trust that Janet immediately understood that whether she held colloquy with the Prince of the Apostles or any other gentleman, “guid mainners" required that she was to pay the most delicate attention to his susceptibilities.

17. An old Scottish gardener had been bitten by an adder, and, as an antidote, his master promptly drenched him with whisky. His health being inquired after next morning, he replied with great enthusiasm: I'm nane the waur o' the bite, and a' the better o' the whusky." The story should immediately operate to lighten even the constitutional gloom of a teetotaller.

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18. Querist: "What makes you speak to yoursel' sae much, Marget?" Marget: "What for no? Whaur dae you think I could gang for better company? The Querist, if intelligent, must have felt, on the instant, that Marget's arrow had gone home to the centre of the target. The story reminds us of Neil Ronaldson's compliment to Swertha in Scott: "I ken few of consequence hereaboot-excepting always mysel', and maybe you, Swertha, but what may, in some sense or ither, be called fules." 1

19. Benevolent old lady to a Cockney rogue and vagabond: "I suppose you've had a good many

1 'The Pirate,' chap. xxiv.

trials in your time?" Cockney rogue and vagabond: "But only two convictions, lidy." If the benevolent old lady was "quick in the uptak"," the answer would immediately awaken her sense of humour and illuminate her vision of rascaldom. 20. Who can fail to feel an immediate joy in the wag who telegraphed home that "the report of his death had been greatly exaggerated ?

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21. "An American, whose imagination had been fired by Southey's wonderful word-picture of the Falls of Lodore, voyaged across the Atlantic in order to see for himself the tumultuous course of the Waterfall. On arriving at Liverpool he at once started for Cumberland, and, armed with map and compass, set out, full of enthusiasm, on the search for the scene. It was a hot day at the end of a dry summer, and as hour succeeded hour and still no cataract rewarded his efforts, he flung himself down on the dry bed of a streamlet on the hillside, weary and despairing. Catching sight of a native of the country, he hailed him joyfully: 'Can you direct me to the Falls of Lodore?' he called. The man, looking at him, grinned graphically, and replied: "You're sittin' on 'em.' Anybody might see at a glance that this little history is better than most novels.

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21a. Two Irishmen have escaped from a burning barn, and one of them, in the excitement of the moment, has pulled on his breeches front to rear. Says the other one: "I hope you're not kill't, Pat?" 'I'm not kill't," replies Pat, surveying his nether extremities distractedly," but, och shure, I've been most terribly twisted." It is to be hoped that even Swift's serious old gentleman would, without delay, have been tickled into a smile at least over this situation.

22. A Carlylean error, touching the first impressions made upon us by great works.—I venture to

say that in all these cases the effect upon folk of fair intelligence would be instantaneous. Once more, test the principle by the undoubtedly great work of any undoubtedly great author. The test, I surmise, will give results in full agreement with the principle: the perusal of such a work will almost immediately produce in us an impression of its greatness-not, perhaps, a finished impression (which, it may be, is only obtainable by careful study of the work), but a conviction that it is great. Carlyle, indeed, has stated (as if it were a law) that "the commonest quality in a true work of art, if its excellence have any depth and compass, is that, at first sight, it occasions a certain disappointment; perhaps even, mingled with its undeniable beauty, a certain feeling of aversion " 1: in which doctrine we cannot possibly agree with him. Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, Dunbar, Shakespeare, Calderon, Molière, Burns, Scott-surely we have no preliminary feeling of aversion when we survey their best work! I venture to remark that there is no excuse for such a statement. You might as well say that we are affected with a preliminary feeling of aversion when we behold the Sun and the Moon and the Stars.

22a. The poet must be able (1) to feel deeply, and (2) to communicate his emotions.-It is implied in all that has been said that the poet must be able, firstly, to feel deeply, and secondly, to communicate his emotions. He must be able to make his convictions, our convictions; his emotions, our emotions; his delight, our delight.2 This is the proper work of the poet. How is he to do it if

1 'Crit. and Misc. Essays,' Vol. ii. p. 1. In relation to musical compositions, Mr Ernest Newman discusses this subject excellently in a recent issue of The Sunday Times,' 12th April 1921.

2 As Mr Clutton Brock very happily says-The artist imposes upon his work "the emphasis of his delight."

we can detect no meaning in his effusions! Or even if his meaning is only to be discovered by passing it through a critical strainer! If one man presumes to speak to another, he is clearly a bore and a nuisance if he does not, in the first place, strive to make himself intelligible. What would be the use of interviewing even an Archangel if he did not make himself intelligible! I have a positive grudge against ladies and gentlemen who rob me of my very limited time by nebulous discourse of any kind; and such persons should not feel offended when we consign their "works to the rubbish-shoot. In these conclusions I feel sure that all sensible people will agree with me.

23. We rejoice in the light of an Author, never in his darkness.-But this is to be noted. Even the great writers, almost without exception I should say, produce more or less rubbish-some of them large quantities of rubbish. This is the confusing element in their writings; and when in perusing a great author you do really get perplexed and tormented by him, you may rest assured that your perplexities and torments are due not to his literary virtues but to his literary vices; not to his strength but to his weakness; not to any goodness in his work but to some badness. Then there is a further source of confusion to the public in the fact that there is a common tendency among feeble and prejudiced critics to find something esoteric and grand in the rubbish of writers of repute, and to set up a kind of heathen cult and worship of the obscure.1 But

1 It is not improbable, I fancy, that their admiration of the esoteric and obscure ceases when they have done praising them. Such is not our position with the great lucid writers. Their works are far other than pegs upon which to hang verbose or rhapsodic panegyrics. They permanently enrich the minds of those who study them, and get numbered among the fair treasures of memory and delight. Such works we keep by us for joy. If we keep an obscure book by us it is merely for reference, never for joy.

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it will not pass with men of discernment. We rejoice in the light of an author, never in his darkness. All the great writers themselves are greatest when most lucid. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my paths," is the highest praise bestowed on what is deemed the Divine Word. Let this, then, be insisted onthat clear intelligibility is the first merit of speech, written or spoken; that obscurity of utterance is a literary crime of the most offensive kind. Even Prophets and Apostles degenerate into nuisances when they speak and write obscurely. All speakers and writers should vigorously drill themselves into obedience to this requisition-not only theologians and philosophers and professional writers and speakers, but poets and novelists as well. Notice that every deviation, even the slightest, from the intelligibility attainable, is, so far, a positive detraction from the merits of the speech or writing, and represents loss of power and time both to author and reader. Consider what a mighty advantage it would be to the world at large if the whole immense library of Slawkenbergius and Phutatorius could be destroyed! Literary aspirants who cannot make themselves clearly and easily intelligible to the ordinary auscultator, either in prose or poetry, ought religiously to keep their thoughts and visions to themselves, and refuse themselves the licence of verbal utterance. As already noted, this precept of perspicuity is nothing less than Apostolic: Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken?"1 Rather let your wisdom boil in your

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1 Although, alas, the Prophets and Apostles themselves are frightful offenders against this Law of Lucidity, frequently the Apostolic and Prophetic knowledge is not equal to the Apostolic and Prophetic intentions. Think of the pathless wilderness and

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