unfitted for, of course.

The musicians tried their art for a little while, but they, too, were
of no use. "Merely a repetition of the same notes in different
combinations," said the critics. "Why will people waste their time
writing unoriginal music, when they might be sweeping crossings?"

One man had written a play. I asked what the critics had said about
him. They showed me his tomb.

Then, there being no more artists or _litterateurs_ or dramatists or
musicians left for their beloved critics to criticise, the general
public of this enlightened land said to themselves, "Why should not
our critics come and criticise us? Criticism is useful to a man.
Have we not often been told so? Look how useful it has been to the
artists and writers--saved the poor fellows from wasting their time?
Why shouldn't we have some of its benefits?"

They suggested the idea to the critics, and the critics thought it an
excellent one, and said they would undertake the job with pleasure.
One must say for the critics that they never shirk work. They will
sit and criticise for eighteen hours a day, if necessary, or even, if
quite unnecessary, for the matter of that. You can't give them too
much to criticise. They will criticise everything and everybody in
this world. They will criticise everything in the next world, too,
when they get there. I expect poor old Pluto has a lively time with
them all, as it is.

So, when a man built a house, or a farm-yard hen laid an egg, the
critics were asked in to comment on it. They found that none of the