Volume 158 — SURMISES AND SURPRISES.

The appearance of the Dean of St. Paul's at a recent social gathering not in the character of a wet blanket, but as a teller of jocund tales and a retailer of humorous anecdotes, must not be taken as an isolated and transient transformation, but as foreshadowing a general conversion of writers and publicists hitherto associated with utterances of a mordant, bitter, sardonic and pessimistic tone.

It is rumoured at Cambridge that Mr. Maynard Keynes, mollified by the reception of his momentous work, has plunged into an orgy of optimism, the first-fruits of which will be a treatise on The Gastronomic Consequences of the Peace. Those who have been fortunate enough to see the MS. declare that the personal sketches of Mr. Clynes, Mr. G.H. Roberts, Mr. Hoover and M. Escoffier are marked by a coruscating wit unparalleled in the annals of Dietetics. The account of a dinner at the "White Horse" is perhaps the clou of an exceptionally exhilarating entertainment.

This agreeable swing of the pendulum is further illustrated by the report that Mr. Philip Gibbs, by way of counteracting the depression caused by his last book, is contemplating a palliative under the title of Humours of the Home Front. It is hoped that the book will come out serially in the pages of The Hibbert Journal.

Very welcome too is the report, not yet officially confirmed, that Sir E. Ray Lankester is engaged on a genial biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with special reference to his achievements in the domain of psychical research.

Other similar rumours are flying about in Fleet Street, but we give them with necessary reserve. One of them credits Mr. Lytton Strachey with the resolve to indite a panegyric of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Another ascribes to Lord Fisher the preparation of a treatise on The Evils of Egotism.

The Week's Great Thought.

"We are at a crisis, and a critical one at that."—Sir Archibald Salvidge in "The Sunday Chronicle."

In a Good Cause.

A special matinée is to be given by Mr. Charles Gulliver at the Paladium, on Friday, March 19th, for the National Children's Adoption Association. Mrs. Lloyd George, who makes a strong appeal for this good work, will receive applications for tickets at 10, Downing Street, S.W., and cheques should be made payable to her.

MANNERS AND MODES.

THE ELECT ARE PRIVILEGED TO SEE THE FINISHED STATUE OF HERCULES BY A CELEBRATED SCULPTOR.