ty-two?"

_Pisistratus_, stirring the fire in great excitement.--"My title! my
title!--what shall be my title!"

_Mr. Caxton_, thrusting his hand into his waistcoat, and in his most
didactic of tones.--"From a remote period, the choice of a title has
perplexed the scribbling portion of mankind. We may guess how their
invention has been racked by the strange contortions it has produced. To
begin with the Hebrews. 'The Lips of the Sleeping,' (_Labia
Dormientium_)--what book do you suppose that title to designate?--A
Catalogue of Rabbinical writers! Again, imagine some young lady of old
captivated by the sentimental title of 'The Pomegranate with its
Flower,' and opening on a treatise on the Jewish Ceremonials! Let us
turn to the Romans. Aulus Gellius commences his pleasant gossiping
'Noctes' with a list of the titles in fashion in his day. For instance,
'_The Muses_' and '_The Veil_,' '_The Cornucopia_,' '_The Beehive_,' and
'_The Meadow_.' Some titles, indeed, were more truculent, and promised
food to those who love to sup upon horrors--such as '_The Torch_,' '_The
Poniard_,' '_The Stiletto_'--"

_Pisistratus_, impatiently.--"Yes, sir; but to come to My Novel."

_Mr. Caxton_, unheeding the interruption.--"You see, you have a fine
choice here, and of a nature pleasing, and not unfamiliar to a classical
reader; or you may borrow a hint from the early Dramatic Writers."

_Pisistratus_, more hopefully.--"Ay! there is something in the Drama
akin to the Novel. Now, perhaps, I may catch an idea."

_Mr. Caxton._--"For instance, the author of the _Curiosities of
Literature_ (from whom, by the way, I am plagiarizing much of the
information I bestow upon you), tells us of a Spanish gentleman who
wrote a Comedy, by which he intended to serve what he took for Moral
Philosophy."

_Pisistratus_, eagerly.--"Well, sir?"

_Mr. Caxton._--"And called it 'The Pain of the Sleep of the World.'"

_Pisistratus._--"Very comic indeed, sir!"

_Mr. Caxton._--"Grave things were then called Comedies, as old things
are now called Novels. Then there are all the titles of early Romance
itself at your disposal--'Theagenes and Chariclea,' or 'The Ass' of
Longus, or 'The Golden Ass' of Apuleius, or the titles of Gothic
Romance, such as 'The most elegant, delicious, mellifluous, and
delightful History of Perceforest, King of Great Britain.'"--And
therewith my father ran over a list of names as long as the Directory,
and about as amusing.

"Well