14 AUGUST 1915, Page 18

[To THE EDITOR OE THE " SPECTATOR."] 611t, — Posts are slow

and irregular nowadays, so perhaps shall be too late to recall Bacon's "Conference maketh ready man," and De Quinoey, in his essay on "Conversation": "Lord Bacon has been led to remark the capacities of con- versation as an organ for sharpening one particular mode of intellectual power." As an instance of saying only one-half in five times the number of syllables it is difficult to equal.— I am, Sir, 8m., R. G. WESTROPP. The Oleanders, Gezirch, Cairo.