As the word is now commonly used it excludes nature’s most interesting productions—the works of man. Nature is usually taken to mean mountains, rivers, clouds and undomesticated animals and plants. I am not indifferent to this half of nature, but it interests me much less than the other half. Lucky and Unlucky People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect. Definitions i As, no matter what cunning system of checks we devise, we must in the end trust some one whom we do not check, but to whom we give unreserved confidence, so there is a point at which the understanding and mental processes must be taken as understood without further question or definition in words. And I should say that this point should be fixed pretty early in the discussion. ii There is one class of mind that loves to lean on rules and definitions, and another that discards them as far as possible. A faddist will generally ask for a definition of faddism, and one who is not a faddist will be impatient of being asked to give one. iii A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words. iv Definitions are a kind of scratching and generally leave a sore place more sore than it was before. v As Love is too young to know what conscience is, so Truth and Genius are too old to know what definition is. Money It has such an inherent power to run itself clear of taint that human ingenuity cannot devise the means of making it work permanent mischief, any more than means can be found of torturing people beyond what they can bear. Even if a man founds a College of Technical Instruction, the chances are ten to one that no one will be taught anything and that it will have been practically left to a number of excellent professors who will know very well what to do with it. Wit There is no Professor of Wit at either University. Surely they might as reasonably have a professor of wit as of poetry. Oxford and Cambridge The dons are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything. Cooking There is a higher average of good cooking at Oxford and Cambridge than elsewhere. The cooking is better than the curriculum. But there is no Chair of Cookery, it is taught by apprenticeship in the kitchens. Perseus and St. George These dragon-slayers did not take lessons in dragon-slaying, nor do leaders of forlorn hopes generally rehearse their parts beforehand. Small things may be rehearsed, but the greatest are always do-or-die, neck-or-nothing matters. Specialism and Generalism Woe to the specialist who is not a pretty fair generalist, and woe to the generalist who is not also a bit of a specialist. Silence and Tact Silence is not always tact and it is tact that is golden, not silence. Truth-tellers