120 THE PARKES MUSEUM 124 BLEAK MARCH IN EPPING FOREST 128 THE

[Aramboles Oberg]

Elegant; it is right or wrong. We do not greatly blame a man for
turn-down collars when the vogue is erect; nor, in these liberal days,
for theological eccentricity; but we esteem him "Nithing" and an outcast
if he but drop a "p" from opportunity. It is not an anecdote, but a
scandal, if we say a man cannot spell his own name. There is only one
thing esteemed worse before we come to the deadly crimes, and that is
the softening of language by dropping the aspirate. After all, it is an
unorthodox age. We are all horribly afraid of being bourgeois, and
unconventionality is the ideal of every respectable person. It is
strange that we should cling so steadfastly to correct spelling. Yet
again, one can partly understand the business, if one thinks of the
little ways of your schoolmaster and schoolmistress. This sanctity of
spelling is stamped upon us in our earliest years. The writer recalls a
period of youth wherein six hours a week were given to the study of
spelling, and four hours to all other religious instruction. So
important is it, that a writer who cannot spell is almost driven to
abandon his calling, however urgent the thing he may have to say, or his
need of the incidentals of fame. Yet in the crisis of such a struggle
rebellious thoughts may arise. Even this: Why, aft
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