IF ONLY     

       ETC.     

       BY     

       F.C. PHILIPS     

       AUTHOR OF "AS IN A LOOKING GLASS," ETC. ETC.     

       LEIPZIG BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ 1904.     

       TO MY OLD FRIEND AND COLLABORATOR, SYDNEY GRUNDY, I DEDICATE THESE PAGES. F.C. PHILIPS.     

       CONTENTS.     

 IF ONLY 

 ONE CAN'T ALWAYS TELL 

 SONGS. AFTER VICTOR HUGO, ARMAND SILVESTRE, CHARLES ROUSSEAU AND THE VICOMTE DE BORELLI       

 LOVE WENT OUT WHEN MONEY WAS INVENTED 

 A PUZZLED PAINTER. (WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH THE LATE SIR AUGUSTUS HARRIS)       

 IF ONLY. 

       CHAPTER I.     

       There is a vast deal talked in the present day about Freewill. We like to feel that we are independent agents and are ready to overlook the fact that our surroundings and circumstances and the hundred and one subtle and mysterious workings of the fate we can none of us escape, control our actions and are responsible for our movements, and make us to a great extent what we are.     

       A man is not even a free agent when he takes the most important step of his whole life, and marries a wife. He is impelled to it by considerations outside of himself; it affects not only his own present 

  P 1/161 next