Heine was a genuine cynic and the maker of epigrams which he wrote as easily and naturally as Bobby Burns wrote verses; and if there is anything in the world which can be accomplished, if at all, without manual labor and the accompanying sweat of the brow, it is the utterance of really witty or epigrammatic remarks. But these leaden-footed English wits somehow convey to me a vision of a cynic in toil-stained overalls going forth in the gray of the early morning, dinner-pail in hand, for a hard day’s work at being epigrammatic and funny. And while I am on the subject of epigram and cynicism, I cannot help wondering what Heine would have done for a living had his lot been cast in our own age and country. Imagine him offering manuscript to the _Ladies’ Home Journal_! (By the way, Bok ought not to let those photographs go for twenty-five cents apiece. They’re worth a dollar if they’re worth a cent.) Think of the sensation that the _Reisebilder_ would create in the _Century_ office! My own opinion is that Heine would, were he living here to-day, find occupation as a paragrapher on some Western paper, acquire some nebulous renown as the “_Ann Arbor Clarion_ man” or the “_Omaha Bumblebee_ man,” and be consigned in his old age to that Home for Literary Incurables known as the McClure Syndicate. There is a book of excerpts from the writings of this gifted man, published some years ago by Henry Holt & Co., and now, unhappily enough, out of print. These excerpts are so well selected and convey to us so vividly the charm of this matchless writer that I took the trouble some time ago to inquire into the way in which the work was done. I learned on undisputed authority that Mr. Holt, who has not spent his life in the literary business for nothing, borrowed a pruning-hook from the _Century_ office, placed it, together with Heine’s complete works, in the hands of an experienced and skilled magazine editor, and bade him “edit” them as if they were intended for publication in his own monthly. The skilled and experienced editor opened the volumes, and the pruning-hook--also a skilled and experienced instrument of mutilation--fairly leaped from its scabbard in its eagerness to eliminate the dangerous passages. When the editor had completed his task Mr. Holt gathered up the parings from the floor and published them under the title of _Scintillations from Heine_; and I sincerely hope that a new edition of this book will be brought out before long, if for no other purpose than to show people what a real epigram is and how sharp it can bite.