complete. The best way of losing it, I think and the safest, is to give it to somebody you know who has once met some man or woman of letters.. This somebody must be instructed to ask that busy and perhaps casual and untidy person to read your manuscript, and “place” it, that is, induce some poor publisher or editor to pay for and publish it. Now the man, or woman of letters, will use violent language on receiving your clumsy brown paper parcel of illegible wares, because he or she has no more to do with the matter than the crossing sweeper. The MS. will either be put away so carefully that it can never be found again, or will be left lying about so that the housemaid may use it for her own domestic purposes, like Betty Barnes, the cook of Mr. Warburton, who seems to have burned several plays of Shakespeare.

   The MS. in short will go where the old moons go.

     And all dead days drift thither,

     And all disastrous things.

   Not only can you secure failure thus yourself, but you can so worry and badger your luckless victim, that he too will be unable to write well till he has forgotten you and your novel, and all the annoyance and anxiety you have given him. Much may be done by asking him for “introductions” to an editor or publisher. These gentry don’t want introductions, they want good books, and very seldom get them. If you behave thus, the man whom you are boring will write to his publisher:

     Dear Brown,

     A wretched creature, who knows my great aunt, asks me to recommend his rubbish to you. I send it by to-day’s post, and I wish you joy of it.

   This kind of introduction will do you excellent service in smoothing the path to failure. You can arrive at similar results by sending your MS.

    not

   to the editor of this or that magazine, but to some one who, as you have been told by some nincompoop, is the editor, and who is

    not

   . He

    may

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