we permit the cancan on the English stage? or aerial flights without
nets? Where are the lost Tales of Miletus? Should lawyers wear their
own hair? Was the Silent System so bad? Should a novel have a
purpose? Was the _Victoria_ Fund rightly distributed? What is the
origin of Egyptian civilisation? Is it allowable to say, "It's me"?
Every other doubtful point of grammar and--worse still--of
pronunciation; also of etymology. May we say "Give an ovation"? Is
the German Emperor a genius, or a fool? Should bachelors be taxed?
Will the family be abolished? Ensilage. Why was Ovid banished from
Rome? Is the soul immortal? Is our art-pottery bad? Is the Revised
Version of the Bible superior to the Old? Who stole Gainsborough's
picture? Which are the rarest coins and stamps? Is there any sugar in
the blood? Blondes or brunettes? Do monkeys talk? What should you
lead at whist? Should directors of insolvent companies be prosecuted?
Or classics be annotated? Was Boswell a fool? Do I exist? Does
anybody else exist? Is England declining? Shall the costers stand in
Farringdon Street? Do green wall-papers contain arsenic? Shall we
adopt phonetic spelling? Is life worth living?


The last question at least I thought I could answer, as I bore to bed
with me that headache which you have doubtless acquired if you have been
foolish enough to read the list. If only one were a journalist, one would
have definite opinions on all these points.

And to these questions every day brings a fresh quota. You are expected
to have read the latest paragraph in the latest paper, and the newest
novel, and not to have missed such and such an article in such and such a
quarterly. And all the while you are fulfilling the duties of, and
solving the problems of, son, brother, cousin, husband, father, friend,