's face, and his gestures became so rapid as to cause the
ring on his finger to flash through the air like the link of a chain.
Also, I was able to detect the fact that on the small, neat wrist under
his left cuff, there was a bracelet finished with a medallion.

"All this, my good sir, is because (partially through the fact that men
forget the point, and partially through the fact that that point fails
to be understood aright) the WORK done by a man is concealed from our
knowledge. For my own part, I have an idea, a scheme--yes, a scheme--in
two words, a, a--"

"N-n-o-u, n-n-o-u!" the bell of the monastery tolled over the tombs in
languid, chilly accents.

"--a scheme that every town and every village, in fact, every unit of
homogeneous population, should keep a record of the particular unit's
affairs, a, so to speak, 'book of life.' This 'book of life' should be
more than a list of the results of the unit's labour; it should also be
a living narrative of the workaday activities accomplished by each
member of the unit. Eh? And, of course, the record to be compiled
without official interference--solely by the town council or district
administration, or by a special 'board, of life and works' or some such
body, provided only that the task be not carried out by nominees of the
GOVERNMENT. And in that record there should be entered everything--that
is to say, everything of a nature which ought to be made public
concerning every man who has lived among us, and has since gone from
our midst."

Here the Lieutenant stretched out his hand again in the direction of
the tombs.

"My right it is," he added, "to know how those folk there spent their
lives. For it is by their labours and their thoughts, and even on the
product of their bones, that I myself am now subsisting. You agree, do
you not?"

In silence I nodded; whereupon he cried triumphantly:

"Ah! You see, do you? Yes, an indispensable point is it, that
whatsoever a man may have done, whether good or evil, should be
recorded. For example, suppose he has manufactured a stove specially
good for heating purposes; record the fact. Or suppose he has killed a
mad dog; record the fact. Or suppose he has built a school, or cleansed
a dirty street, or been a pioneer in the teaching of sound farming, or
striven, by word and deed, his life long, to combat official
irregularities... record the fact. Again, suppose a woman has borne
ten, or fifteen, healthy children; record t