for the contemplation of a small spirit like mine. I can only grovel before it as before a mystery. The fact that to-day everybody is competent to write a novel, and does, is often adduced in proof of the high standard of modern education. But surely this is nothing to the learning indicated by these novelists' chapter-headings. And their prodigality! Here is a first chapter four thousand words long which is concerned with the meeting of the hero and heroine in a railway carriage. Nothing whatever is established beyond this certainly important fact. Both are described. Paddington Station is also unerringly portrayed, and the destination of the heroine is indicated. But with the exit of the train from the terminus the chapter closes. And with what does it begin? A passage from the Shi King. If I knew what the Shi King was it would be enough for me. I would presume upon no further acquaintance, for I know my own level and I am not man enough for that kind of thing. This lady, however, treats the Shi King with a high hand. Needing an appropriate quotation for her first chapter, she has only to reflect for a moment and her complete knowledge of the Shi King affords her the absolutely right words. For the next stage of her story she borrows from Emerson, for the next from Boulmier (three lines from a virelai),
