18 NOVEMBER 1911, Page 32

" HERO OF HEROES."

[To THE EDITOR OT THE " SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—If your review of my "Hero of Heroes" had been less kindly I would not have troubled you with this note. But such reviewing as yours makes the author feel his critic to be a friend and helper. May I therefore submit to your judg- ment the fact that in Xenophon (CEc. xxi. 3) ?II-10-1km is evidently the skipper or the pilot ? And this one touch shows that the word had a nautical application; that is to say, on a boat or a ship the term, unless you knew to the contrary, would mean the one in command. It is true that on land also the disciples addressed the Master as ?s-araaaa, and meant possibly Rabbi. But the master on land was the master of the ship ; and master on board would carry that nuance of meaning.

Is not one justified, therefore, in seizing on the suggestion, supported by the authority of Xenophon ? "All the charm of all the Muses sometimes blossoms in a lonely word."—I am,