2 DECEMBER 1916, Page 11

AN OLD THOUGHT.

[To THE EDITOE Of THE " SPECTATOE."i Sur,—In your issue of the 18th inst. Lord Cromer began his excellent article or review of a book by remarking that it is very difficult for a writer of a book or a play to say anything that has not been said before, and he quoted some words of Terence to the same effect. May I give here a few lines from Pascal's Penseesl He says: "Let nobody say that I have said nothing new; the disposition of the matter is new. When people play at tennis they both play with the same ball; but one places it best." This thought has, we know, been often expressed by different authors more or less happily, but I fancy by none more brightly than by Pascal.—