which
he should find within.

These books naturally "took." They invited no man to read, but they were
interesting to look at and therefore particularly adapted to those
occasions when one must make a small gift to a friend. Scarce a
center-table in the country but held at least one. The beauty of it was
that the literary matter cost him nothing, and the books were their own
advertising bill-boards; for wherever they went they lay in conspicuous
places.

From books Mr. Early passed on to furniture; and he begot strange
shapes, wherein forgotten Gothic forms were commingled with forms that
never man saw before; and these also took. So the circle widened, until
glass pottery and rugs were gathered into the potpourri of Mr. Early's
genius.

Finally he established his magazine, _The Aspirant_, for he began to
feel the need of explaining things--chiefly himself--to his expanding
circle. _The Aspirant_ had covers of butcher's paper; and the necessity
for self-defense at last developed in Mr. Early that literary style
which he had found it impossible to cultivate while he still had nothing
to say. He grew a peculiar ability for self-glorification and for
slugging the other man. Particularly caustic did his pen become in
respect to those, whether painters, musicians, poets, novelists or
reformers, who had endeared themselves to the great mass of the public.
_The Aspirant_ always called the public "the rabble," and you can't damn
humanity more easily and cheaply than by calling it "the rabble."
Naturally every one hastened to buy Mr. Early's furniture, his rugs and
his pottery, and diligently to read _The Aspirant_, in order that he or
she might escape the universal condemnation. Be _outre_ and you'll be
right; be right and you'll be _outre_; be _outre_ anyway: was the simple
creed.

To those penniless celebrities to whom purchase of Mr. Early's
commodities was over-expensive, there was another way out from under.
They might visit Mr. Early's hospitable home, and so contribute their
mite to the halo of distinction that surrounded him. The great ones came
to St. Etienne. They ate and drank and were exhibited to an admiring
throng. They gave lectures, introduced from the platform by Mr.
Sebastian Early; they went away and _The Aspirant_ chronicled their
satellite excellences. No such ex-guest need fear a blow in the face
upon its pages. All these things came before the public--more and more
before the public every year. They