those who are older and more serious.

On the title page of every stamp album and catalogue should be inscribed
the old latin motto: "_Te doces_" thou teachest, for it is certainly an
instructor and affords much intellectual entertainment.

[Illustration: Stamp, "Hankow Local Post", 2 cents]

In connection with this motto we have a little philatelic joke from the
orient. In one of the Chinese treaty ports a stamp has been issued which
bears the motto. We find them on the tea chests, written in excellent
Chinese, and, even if we do not read the language, we cannot doubt that
they refer to the _tea doses_ which the chests contain.

By some, philately has been called a science. Perhaps it hardly merits
so exalted a title but it opens for us a wide field for research, in
which we may find many curious, interesting and instructive things. It
trains our powers of observation, enlarges our perceptions, broadens our
views, and adds to our knowledge of history, art, languages, geography,
botany, mythology and many kindred branches of learning.

[Illustration: Stamp, "Canada Postage", Christmas 1898, 2 cents]

Philately embraces the whole earth and likewise the whole earth is
sometimes embraced within the limits of a postage stamp. As an example
of this, witness the recent effort of our Canadian cousins in
celebration of the achievement of the long-desired ocean penny postage,
at present an inter-colonial rate of the British Empire, but some day to
be an international rate. The motto is a trifle bombastic and suggests
the Teutonic superlative; "So bigger as never vas," and the "Xmas 1898"