sure you I have seen it so stated in print; and in one article I
read on the subject the perturbation of the writer, lest there should be
any mistake about it, so agitated his grammar that it was impossible to
parse it. I should like to know who was responsible in the first place
for the expression which has been imposed upon me. It seems to me there
is strong presumptive evidence that it was by man himself that man was
dubbed mere man. If the lords of creation choose to masquerade sometimes
as mere man by all means let them.

The saying is, "In small things, liberty; in great things, unity; in all
things, charity," but when you meet a man who describes himself as a
mere man, you would always do well to ask what he wants, because, since
man first swung himself from his bough in the forest primeval and stood
upright on two legs, he has never assumed that position for nothing.
[Laughter.] My own private opinion, which I confide to you, knowing it
will go no further, is that he assumes that tone, as a rule, to draw
sovran woman. [Laughter.] Mere man is a paradoxical creature--it is not
always possible to distinguish between his sober earnest and his
leg-pulling exercises. [Laughter.] One has to be on one's guard, and woe
be to the woman who in these days displays that absence of the sense of
humor which is such a prominent characteristic of our comic papers.
[Laughter.] I do not mean to say for a moment that man assumes his
"mere man" tone for unpleasant purposes. On the contrary, he assumes it
for party purposes as a rule--for dinner party purposes. [Laughter.]
When man is in his mere man mood sovran woman would do well to ask for
anything that she wants--for it is then that he holds the sceptre out to
her. [Laughter.] Unfortunately, the mood does not last; if it did he
would have given us the suffrage ages ago. Sovran woman is the Uitlander
of civilization--and man is her Boer. [Laughter.] It seems to me that
sovran woman is very much in the position of Queen Esther; she has her
crown, and her kingdom, and her royal robes, but she is liable to have
her head snapped off at any moment. [Laughter.] On the other hand,
there are hundreds of men who have their heads snapped off every day.
[Laughter.] Mere man has his faults, no doubt, but sovran woman also can
be a rasping sort of creature, especially if she does not cultivate
sympathy with cigarettes as she gets older. [Laughter.] Let us be fair
to mere man. Mere man has alway