23 SEPTEMBER 1916, Page 3

A propos of our article on " Limericks " which

appeared last week, a correspondent sends us a delightful piece of nonsense metaphysics in the form of a Limerick :- " There was an old man of Cadiz

Who affirmed that life is what it is, For he early had learnt If it were what it weren't It could not be that which it is."

It would, we feel sure, have appealed to Shakespeare, for does not he make the clown in Twelfth Night describe how that the hermit of Prague very wittily said to a niece of King Gorboduc: "That that is is"