THE walking delegates of a higher civilization, who have nothing to
divide, look upon the notion of property as a purely artificial creation
of human society. According to these advanced philosophers, the time
will come when no man shall be allowed to call anything his. The
beneficent law which takes away an author's rights in his own books just
at the period when old age is creeping upon him seems to me a handsome
stride toward the longed-for millennium.
SAVE US from our friends--our enemies we can guard against. The
well-meaning rector of the little parish of Woodgates, England, and
several of Robert Browning's local admirers have recently busied
themselves in erecting a tablet to the memory of "the first known
forefather of the poet." This lately turned up ancestor, who does not
date very far back, was also named Robert Browning, and is described on
the mural marble as "formerly footman and butler to Sir John Bankes of
Corfe Castle." Now, Robert Browning the poet had as good right as Abou
Ben Adhem himself to ask to be placed on the list of those who love
their fellow men; but if the poet could have been consulted in the
matter he probably would have preferred not to have that particular
footman exhumed.
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