as
not heresy for an Englishman to say so, I should say the _Maenuhm_ was
equal to the Comedy of Errors; and Shakspeare certainly must have
borrowed the idea of his play from Plautus--the resemblance between them
is too close to be accidental."

Karl said "Yes," in that cool sort of tone by which people show they
assent to admiration without participating in it, and added something of
there being no language but Greek; at which Harry Benson laughed and
asked him if he was still reviewing his Homer.

Though this was said in raillery, Ashburner remarked that Karl looked
quite pleased, and seemed to take the allusion to Greek and Reviews as a
special compliment. The fact was that Mr. Karl Benson had just been
through a gentle controversy upon the question whether the Greek word
[Greek: kadestechnia] should be rendered _constitut_ING or
constitut_ed_,--which had redounded very much to the credit of himself
or his antagonist--a point not yet decided, and which it is very much
feared never will be.

The particulars of this important contest were these: Karl had been
classical editor of one of the leading magazines of Gotham, known to the
literary public of that literary metropolis as the _Zuyderzee_. The
Zuyderzee when first organized, had not boasted a classical editor among
its managers; and as it was devoted to what is vulgarly called "light
literature," was supposed by the initiated portion of the public not to
want one. Suddenly, however, certain short pieces appeared in the
Editor's table (which was printed in small type at the end of each
number, and never read), containing severe criticisms on such classical
scholars of the nineteenth century as ventured to publish works in the
dead languages with notes attached, for the benefit of young England, or
more particularly, young America. Though these criticisms were always
after the Edinburgh Review model, and finished up in the severest style
of the month, and though the Zuyderzee had a classical editor to do them
(which we would here explain to be an editor devoted to the review of
classical works and subjects, and nothing else), they were to the
Zuyderzee a cheap and harmless luxury. Mr. Karl Benson being a gentleman
of fortune, was not particular about compensation, but limited his
desires to the very worthy object of seeing himself in print. At that
time, too, Mr. Benson had not "been up" to works of _fiction_; or else
had restrained his powers and devoted them to