MURKY RECTANGLES
SIR,—Johnson remarked that he considered himself a good-humoured man. Mr. Nicolson considers himself tolerant, but tolerance is not his strong suit. Did he not tell us once that in his youth he flung Dorian Gray .out _of a railway-carriage window? Now, because philatelists live in a different world from his, and, instead of dragging fish from their native habitat or bringing down birds on the wing, pursue the British Guiana one cent 1856, he pours scorn on their sublimation of the hunting instinct. Stamps are emong the least inconvenient things that are col- lected. Unlike musical-boxes, they do not clutter up corridors and over- flow into the bathroom. Mr. Agate collects walking-sticks. What would he give for Johnson's titaff lost in the Highlands? I collect economic errors, and am alwayslooking for rare ones to add to my collection. Hence I was disappointed by Mr. Nicolson's article, for the economic error he falls into in his ast paragraph is as common as the blue tuppence- halfpenny 1946. If, for a few bits of adhesive paper a duke receives a sum sufficient to buy aiSickert for the nation, no goods or services have been consumed ; the philanthropic potential has not been reduced. Indeed, the Sicken may have more chances of being purchased for the people than before, for the duke may not have felt justified in buying it till he had cashed in on the adhesive paper. Mr. Nicolson regards the money ai,
in some way lost, to 4' and sorrow." Yours faithfully . .
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