+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----+ | |No. of |No. of |No. of |No. of |No. of | | | |candidates|candidates|candidates|candidates|candidates| | | |in |awaiting |fully |trained |full, but |Total| | |training |training |trained |but not |not | | | |in |in | |full |trained | | +------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----+ | | | | | | | | |1. Jam | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----+ | | | | | | | | |2. Jelly | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----+ | | | | | | | | |3. Marmalade| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----+ | | | | | | | | | Total | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----+ The perfect beauty of schedules framed upon this model is only to be apprehended by those who realise that when they are filled in and added up correctly the figure at the base of the vertical "Total" column on the right is identical with the figure on the right of the horizontal "Total" column at the base. It is the haunting magic of this fact that gives to Government clerks the wistful far-away look which they habitually wear. It is not a good schedule this, of course--not a complete, not an exhaustive one. After a month or so it will be discovered with a cry of astonishment that no record has been kept of the number of candidates who are being trained in jam or jelly (combined) but not in marmalade, in jelly and marmalade (combined) but not in jam, and in jam and marmalade (combined) but not in jelly. And so a new and a greater schedule will have to be compiled. But even after that for a long time no one will notice that nothing has been said about the number of candidates who are being trained in jam and jelly and marmalade all combined and mashed up together, as they are at a picnic on the sands.