n a coloured person--a nigger?" asked the Rhodes
Scholar.

"_All_ the College officials," explained the Don, "are, in the highest
and best sense of the word, white men. Some of the Ordinary Fellows, it
is true--Mr. Sargant's scheme contemplated, you see, the election to
fellowships of persons of local distinction. But our officials are,
without exception, Oxford men. It would be impossible, otherwise, to
preserve the Tone and the Tradition."

"And now, gentlemen," he continued, "I must not keep you too long.
Procrastination is the thief of time, eh? and besides, your boat leaves
Southampton to-morrow. All expenses on the journey refunded by the
Timbuctoo Bursar, on application. Are your boxes unpacked? No? Then
all you have to do is to alter the labels."

"About the 'Encyclopaedia,'" said the spruce youth. "It is in three
packing cases--a bit 'eavy. Will carriage be paid?"

"Oh certainly, certainly," replied the Tutor. "Of course, I _might_
relax our regulation about bonfires in the quadrangle--but no, no, I am
sure you will find it most useful, even up-to-date--in Timbuctoo. _Good_
morning!"

* * * * *

The Tutor, with a sigh of relief, renewed his perusal of the
"Itinerarium" of Nemesianus. Nemesianus, honest man! did not know where
Timbuctoo was. Nor, for the matter of that, did the Tutor.

THE END AND OBJECT--

"It is always interesting," said my friend, Feedingspoon, "to consider
the various stages of the process by which knowledge is disseminated. An
inscription (we will say) or an important textual variation is
discovered: it is then misinterpreted to fit a preconceived theory; then
it is introduced into a cheap German edition, for the School-Use
explained. Subsequently, an English school-book is copied from the
German: the English commentary is imparted (by me) to undergraduates, in
the form of lectures; and the undergraduates' notes are presently
submitted to an examiner in the Schools, who marks them _a_--?, and says
they show evidence of some original research. By how many degrees, do
you suppose, is the examiner removed from the truth?"

"It depends," I said, "whether he be a D.D., an M.A., or a D.Litt. But I
do not understand the necessity of the lecturer. Cannot your
undergraduate read the English book for himself?"

"No," he replied, "he cannot. There are, of course, exceptional persons.
But the ordinary man's mind is so constructed th