? The connection between the
cassock and the buskin has, to this extent, always been fairly
intimate--from the time when Bishop Bale wrote mystery plays, to the
recent years in which Sheridan Knowles, after having been a dramatist
and an actor, closed his days as a preacher. Shirley, Mason, Home,
Milman, Croly, Maturin, White--these are names well known in the history
of the theatre, and they are all names of clerical association. Such has
been the fascination of the 'boards' even for those whose home has been
the pulpit and the cloister.

THE OUTSIDES OF BOOKS.

This may fairly be claimed as a popular subject. It is one in which
nearly everybody--perhaps everybody--is interested. There can surely be
few, if any, who do not care about the outside of a book. Even if a man
never opens a volume, he likes its exterior to be pleasing. Nay, there
are books which may be said to be produced and utilized only for their
outward garb. How often does one find a volume described as a charming
one 'for the table'! It is for the table that certain publications are
destined. Enter a drawing-room, and you will find a few books scattered
here and there 'with artful care.' I do not say they are intended never
to be opened, but their primary function is to look nice--to 'set off'
the table-cloth, and, generally, to give a bright appearance to the
room. And their adaptability for this purpose is so widely recognised
that you can scarcely go anywhere without coming across books of this
complexion. You find them exposed to view in your doctor's or your
dentist's ante-chamber; you find them placed before you, usually very
much the worse for wear, in hotel waiting-rooms. And the instinct which
prompts all this display is genuine enough. It is perfectly true--there
is no furniture so agreeable to the eye as books. Nothing makes a room
look at once so picturesque and home-like, if the volumes be but
sufficiently varied in size and hue.

And that brings us in presence of a point of controversy. Ought there to
be so much variety in the exteriors of books? Ought they to be 'got up'
in so many different styles? Some people would answer these questions
with a decided negative. These are the persons who like uniformity in
their libraries, who would have one shelf look for all the world like
the facsimile of the other. These are the persons who, almost as soon as
they buy a book, are desirous to have it rebound after some fantastic
notion of