Essays on Life 



which can be repeated at pleasure, can be 

 pressed into the service of language. Mrs. 

 Bentley, wife of the famous Dr. Bentley of 

 Trinity College, Cambridge, used to send her 

 snuff-box to the college buttery when she 

 wanted beer, instead of a written order. If 

 the snuff-box came the beer was sent, but if 

 there was no snuff-box there was no beer. 

 Wherein did the snuff-box differ more from 

 a written order, than a written order differs 

 from a spoken one? The snuff-box was for 

 the time being language. It sounds strange to 

 say that one might take a pinch of snuff out 

 of a sentence, but if the servant had helped 

 him or herself to a pinch while carrying it to 

 the buttery this is what would have been 

 done ; for if a snuff-box can say " Send me a 

 quart of beer," so efficiently that the beer is 

 sent, it is impossible to say that it is not a 

 bond fide sentence. As for the recipient of 

 the message, the butler did not probably trans- 

 late the snuff-box into articulate nouns and 

 verbs ; as soon as he saw it he just went down 

 into the cellar and drew the beer, and if he 

 thought at all, it was probably about some- 



