anist--an accident of sentiment
and alliteration to the literary man.

[Illustration]

_A Hint_

[Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 17, 1886.]

Please to take note, my dear Mr. James McN. W., that your "dearest
foe," 'Arry, is a candidate for the Slade Chair of Art in the
University of Cambridge! This is said to be the age of testimonials. A
few words from you, my dear James, addressed to the distinguished
trustees, could not fail to give 'Arry a lift.

ATLAS.

_A Distinction_

Atlas, you provoke me! The wisdom of ages means but little--I have
said it. _Faut etre "dans le mouvement,"_ you dear old thing, or you
are absolutely out of it!

[Sidenote: _The World_, Feb. 24, 1886.]

You are misled, and mistake mere fact for the fiction of history,
which is truth--and instructs--and is beautiful.

Now, in truth, 'Arry is dead--very dead.

Did I not, from between your shoulders, sally forth and slay
him?--thereby instructing--and making history--and avenging the
beautiful.

If within the distant Aiden, you can't descry, "with sorrow laden,"
the tiny soul of 'Arry, it is because you no longer read your own
small print, my Atlas! and the microbes of Eternity escape you.

Moreover, are not these things written in the chronicles of Chelsea,
adown whose Embankment I still, Achilles-like, do drag the body of an
afternoon?

This practice has doubtless completed the confusion of the
wearied ones of Slade--and they of the Schools, accustomed to the
culture of Colvin, whose polished scalp I with difficulty collected,
ceasing to distinguish between the quick and the dead, will probably
prop up our late 'Arry as professor, long to remain undetected in the
Chair!

Atlas, _tais-toi!_--Let us not interfere!

[Illustration]

_A Document_

Atlas--I have come upon the posthumous paper of 'Arry--his certificate
of character, and printed pretension to the Professorship of
Slade--and O! the shame of it--and the indiscretion of it!

Read, Atlas, and seek in your past for a parallel:

[Sidenote: _The World_, March 24, 1886.]

"To the Electors of the Slade Professor of Fine Art for the University
of Cambridge.--My Lord and Gentlemen,--I beg to submit my name as a
candidate for the Slade Professorship, and enclose herewith a few
testimonials ... I have also received favourable letters from the
following gentlemen ... Alma-T