“That is,” I said, “because you feel yourself to be so vastly superior.” “Is it?” she asked. “I suppose so.” “And next time you want to laugh at any one,” I said mock-seriously, “just think of it first, that you are considering how superior you are.” She seemed greatly impressed and quite cast down by this remark. I said: “Perhaps a good distinction to make between wit and humor is that wit laughs at people and humor laughs with them.” “Isn’t satire wit?” asked Marian. I thought a moment. “Yes, surely,” I answered. As I spoke again of the relation of beauty to our subject, Ruth said: “What has all this about wit and humor to do with our subject?” “Not much,” I said, “except that it shows how the spirit of fun has a part in harmony; and that it shows humor to be understanding and a human thing. But it is interesting for itself, isn’t it?” “Yes,” she answered, “it is very interesting.” NINTH MEETING Ruth was unable to come. Not a single paper this week! When all but Florence and Marian had arrived without papers, I began to be disappointed; but when they came in, I said: “I am going to give up the club.” You should have seen Marian’s serious face. “Why?” she exclaimed. “Because you haven’t brought me any paper.” They all were too busy. But Florence had given Henry a good little talk on the meeting he had missed. I asked them whether they had enjoyed these meetings on art as much as the first meetings. They all said yes, quite as much. I spoke again of the relation of our idea to art. It seemed to them all that art was the expression of the religious ideal. Virginia said: “It relates us with others and gives us sympathy.” Henry said it was the action of religious feeling. “Just as,” he added, “it is said one knows a man by his actions.” “You know what I mean,” said I; “it might be well expressed in a single phrase that would stay in your minds. Art is the symbol of completeness. It must be in itself a tiny world, a miniature universe. Do you remember the delight you used to get when you were little, from a tiny doll’s house, from a little thing that seemed real, that seemed a small, perfect world in itself? This joy you get from every work of art, the joy of a complete world.” “As in the novel,” said Marian, “which is not like real life, with its incompleteness and distraction, but has within itself all the people and all the things necessary to itself.” I spoke again of the way in which I meant to discuss questions of conduct according to the rules of art. I said: “Life can be made beautiful and complete in the same way, and by learning these large laws we may avoid the pettiness of moral discussion. You, being a self, are the symbol of the whole Self. “Now,” I continued, “we will speak of poetry, of painting, of all the arts, and you will see that the laws of all are the same laws. What is the difference between prose and poetry?”