* * * * * [Illustration: GOOD RESOLUTIONS. _Blenkinsop (on a Friend's Yacht) soliloquises._ "I KNOW ONE THING, IF EVER I'M RICH ENOUGH TO KEEP A YACHT, I SHALL SPEND THE MONEY IN HORSES."] * * * * * ONLY THEIR PLAY! Abnormal natures, morbid motives! Yes! These things, upon the stage, perhaps impress. Monstrosities, not true men's hearts, nor women's. Trolls, with a touch of the _delirium tremens_, Neurotic neurospasts, puppets whose wires Are pulled by morbid dreams and mad desires; Not men and women 'midst our world's temptations, But fevered phantasy's bizarre creations. Despite _Solness_ and _Mrs. Tanqueray_, "People don't do these things"--except _in play_! * * * * * AS IN A GLASS DARKLY.--Grubby and grovelling "Realists" boast that they only "hold the mirror up to Nature." Perhaps! But when their particular "mirror" happens to be--as it commonly is--dirty and distorting, Nature, like the victim of a bad looking-glass at a country inn, is taken at a disadvantage. There are mirrors which make a man look a monster, but then the monstrosity is not in the man but the mirror. * * * * * TIMON ON BIMETALLISM. (_Adapted from Shakspeare._) ["He advocates bimetallism with the passionate ardour of a prophet promulgating a new revelation. On most subjects he is cool, analytical, _and perhaps a little cynical_; but on this subject he is an enthusiast."--_The Times on Mr. Balfour's Speech about Bimetallism._] _Timon of London, loquitur_:--