nthood: "To become a parent is to accept terrible risks. I'm
Charlie's father. What then?... He owes nothing whatever to me or to you.
If we were starving and he had plenty, he would probably consider it his
duty to look after us; but that's the limit of what he owes us. Whereas
nothing can put an end to our responsibility towards him.... We thought it
would be nice to have children and so Charlie arrived. He didn't choose
his time and he didn't choose his character, nor his education, nor his
chance. If he had his choice you may depend he'd have chosen differently.
Do you want me, on the top of all that, to tell him that he must
obediently accept something else from us--our code of conduct? It would be
mere cheek, and with all my shortcomings I'm incapable of impudence,
especially to the young."

On ownership: "Have you ever stood outside a money-changer's and looked at
the fine collection of genuine banknotes in the window? Supposing I told
you that you could look at them, and enjoy the sight of them, and nobody
could do more? No, my boy, to enjoy a thing properly you've got to own it.
And anybody who says the contrary is probably a member of the League of
all the Arts."

On economics: "That's where the honest poor have the advantage of us....
We're the dishonest poor.... We're one vast pretence.... A pretence
resembles a bladder. It may burst. We probably shall burst. Still, we have
one great advantage over the honest poor, who sometimes have no income at
all; and also over the rich, who never can tell how big their incomes are
going to be. We know exactly where we are. We know to the nearest
sixpence."

On history: "Never yet when empire, any empire, has been weighed in the
balance against a young and attractive woman has the young woman failed to
win! This is a dreadful fact, but men are thus constituted."

On bolshevism: "Abandon the word 'bolshevik.' It's a very overworked word
and wants a long repose."

=iv=

The best brief sketch of Arnold Bennett's life that I know of is given in
the chapter on Arnold Bennett in John W. Cunliffe's _English Literature
During the Last Half Century_. Professor Cunliffe, with the aid, of
course, of Bennett's own story, _The Truth About an Author_, writes as
follows:

"He was born near Hanley, the 'Hanbridge' of the Five Towns which his
novels were to launch into literary fame, and received a somewhat limited
education at the neighbouring 'Middle School' of Newcastle, his h