begin with the Hebrews. 'The Lips of the Sleeping' (Labia Dormientium)--
what book did you suppose that title to designate?--A Catalogue of
Rabbinical Writers! Again, imagine some young lady of old captivated by
the sentimental title of 'The Pomegranate with its Flower,' and opening
on a Treatise on the Jewish Ceremonials! Let us turn to the Romans.
Aulus Gellius commences his pleasant gossipping 'Noctes' with a list of
the titles in fashion in his day. For instance, 'The Muses' and 'The
Veil,' 'The Cornucopia,' 'The Beehive,' and 'The Meadow.' Some titles,
indeed, were more truculent, and promised food to those who love to sup
upon horrors,--such as 'The Torch,' 'The Poniard,' 'The Stiletto'--"

PISISTRATUS (impatiently).--"Yes, sir, but to come to My Novel."

MR. CAXTON (unheeding the interruption).--"You see you have a fine choice
here, and of a nature pleasing, and not unfamiliar, to a classical
reader; or you may borrow a hint from the early dramatic writers."

PISISTRATUS (more hopefully).--"Ay, there is something in the Drama akin
to the Novel. Now, perhaps, I may catch an idea."

MR. CAXTON.--"For instance, the author of the 'Curiosities of Literature'
(from whom, by the way, I am plagiarizing much of the information I
bestow upon you) tells us of a Spanish gentleman who wrote a Comedy, by
which he intended to serve what he took for Moral Philosophy."

PISISTRATUS (eagerly).--"Well, sir?"

MR. CAXTON.---"And called it 'The Pain of the Sleep of the World.'"

PISISTRATUS.--"Very comic, indeed, sir."