e
less he sees of it the better. Moreover, a wonderful temper is required,
for in the backward cast of the long line the hook will, ten to one,
catch in a tree, or a flower, or a straw, or a bit of hay, and then it
has to be disengaged by the angler crawling on hands and knees. Perhaps
a northern angler will never quite master the delicacy of this sport, nor
acquire the entomological knowledge which seems to be necessary, nor make
up his mind between the partisans of the light one-handed rod and the
double-handed rod.

AMATEUR AUTHORS.

Literature knows no Trades Unions, but if things go on as they are at
present, perhaps we shall hear of literary rattening and picketing. The
_Kolnische Zeitung_, in Germany, has been protesting against the mob of
noble ladies who write with ease, though their works, even to persons
acquainted with the German tongue, are by no means easy reading. The
Teutonic paper requests these ambitious dames to conduct themselves as
amateurs, to write, if write they must, but to print only a few copies of
their books, and give these few copies only to their friends. This is
advice as morally excellent as it will be practically futile, nor does it
apply only to ladies of rank, but to amateur novelists in general. The
old quarrel between artists and amateurs is fiercely waged in dramatic
society, perhaps because actors and actresses feel the stress of
competing with cheap amateur labour. Now, though the professional
novelist has only of late begun to think seriously of the subject, it is
plain that he too is competing with labour unnaturally cheap, and is
losing in the competition. To define an amateur is difficult, as all
athletic clubs and rowing clubs are aware. But in this particular field
of human industry, the amateur may be defined with ease. The amateur
novelist is not merely the person who, having another profession, writes
a romance by way of "by-work," as the Greeks called it. Lord
Beaconsfield was no amateur in romance, and perhaps no novel was ever
sold at so high a ransom as "Endymion." Yet Lord Beaconsfield only
scribbled in his idle hours, and was not half so much an amateur novelist
as Mr. Gladstone is an amateur student of Homer. No; the true amateur is
he or she who publishes at his or her own expense. The labour of such
persons is not only cheap; its rewards may be estimated by a frightful
minus quantity--the publisher's bill. Every one must have observed that