Pocket. Therefore I counsel that you preoccupate and tie him, by
Easter at the latest, to _Forty thousand words_, naming a Figure in
excess: for Operation shrinketh all things, as was observed by
Galenus, who said to his Friend, "I will cut off your Leg, and then
you will be lesse by a Foot." Also you will do well to provide a
_Pictura_ in Chromo-Lithography. For the Glaziers like it, and no harm
done if they blush not: which is easily avoided by making it out of a
little Child and a Puppy-dog, or else a Mother, or some such trivial
Accompaniment. But Phryne marrs all. It was even rashly done of that
Editor who issued a Coloured Plate, calling it "_Phryne Behind the
Areopagus_": for though nothing was Seen, the pillars and Grecian
elders intervening, yet 'twas Felt a great pity. And the Fellow ran
for it, saying flimsily:--

"Populus me sibilat. At mihi plaudo."

Whereas I rather praise the dictum of that other writer, who said, "In
this house I had sooner be turned over on the Drawing-room Table than
roll under that in the Dining-room," meaning to reflect on the wine,
but the Hostess took it for a compliment.

But to speak of the Letter Press. For the Sea you will use Clark
Russell; for the East, Rudyard Kipling; for _Blood_, Haggard; for
neat pastorall Subjects, Thomas Hardy, so he be within Bounds. I
mislike his "Noble Dames." Barrie has a prettier witt; but Besant will
keep in all weathers, and serve as right _Pemmican_. As for conundrums
and poetry, they are but Toys: I have seen as good in crackers; which
we pull, not as meaning to read or guess, but read and guess to cover
the Shame of our Employment. Yet for Conundrums, if you hold the
Answers till your next issue they Raise the Wind among Fools.

He that hath _Wife and Children_ hath given Hostages to _Little
Folks_: he will hardly redeem but by sacrifice of a Christmas Tree.
The learned Poggius, that had twelve Sons and Daughters, used to note
ruefully that he might never escape but by purchase of a _dozen
Annuals_, citing this to prove how greatly Tastes will diverge among
the Extreamely Young, even though they come of the same geniture. So
will Printed Matter multiply faster than our Parents. Yet 'tis
discutable that this phrensy of _Annuals_ groweth staler by
Recurrence. As that Helvetian lamented, whose Cuckoo-clock failed of
a ready Purchaser, and he had to live with it. "_What Again?_" said
he, and "_Surely Spring is not come yet, dash it?_" A