of Ferguson. After driving Ferguson nearly mad with pretended
ignorance, they finally asked him if the mummy was dead. When Ferguson
glibly replied that he had been dead three thousand years, he was
dumbfounded at the fury of the "doctor" for being imposed upon with vile
second-hand carcases. The poor Frenchman was warned that if he didn't
bring out a nice, fresh corpse at once, they would brain him! No wonder
that, later, when he was asked for a description of the party, Ferguson
laconically remarked that they were lunatics!

In speaking of contemporary society, Ibsen once remarked: "We have made
a fiasco both in the heroic and the lover roles. The only parts in
which we have shown a little talent, are the naively comic; but with our
more highly developed self-consciousness we shall no longer be fitted
even for that." With time and "our more highly developed self
--consciousness" have largely passed the novelty and the charm of this
early naively comic humour of Mark Twain. But it is as valid still, as
it was in 1867, to record honestly the impressions directly communicated
to one by the novelties, peculiarities, individual standards and ideals
of other peoples and races. Mark Twain spoke his mind with utter
disregard for other people's opinions, the dicta of criticism or the
authoritative judgment of the schools. 'The Innocents Abroad' is
eminently readable, not alone for its humour, its clever journalism, its
remarkably accurate and detailed information, and its fine descriptions.
The rare quality, which made it "sell right along--like the Bible," is
that it is the vital record of a keen and searching intelligence. Mark
Twain found so many of the "masterpieces of the world" utterly
unimpressive and meaningless to him, that he actually began to distrust
the validity of his own impressions. Every time he gloried to think
that for once he had discovered an ancient painting that was beautiful
and worthy of all praise, the pleasure it gave him was an infallible