In at the Death

The first surviving work of dramatic criticism in English is also, as one might expect, an anti-theatrical diatribe. The Tretise of Miraclis Pleyinge (c. 1380– 1420) condemns the mimetic spectacle of human bodies in pain. In its view those who torment Christ and the saints in jest (read, performance) are no different from the actual Jewish and pagan torturers of ecclesiastical lore. The treatise depreciates the alleged devotional value of performance, which is overwhelmed and eclipsed by the temporal and physical functions of playing. Unlike paintings of the Crucifixion that reveal the truth, the actor's physical presence “causes excessive bodily delight, distracting viewers from their proper eschatological hopes.” Impure flesh cannot properly incarnate sanctity. The audience, sharing the temporal dimension of the performance, never loses its awareness of the secular; its weeping at the torments depicted, complains the author, may be an emotional indulgence that detracts from actual contemplation.

The naivety of the Tretise in regard to theatrical aesthetics is typical of such polemics, which can be heard down to Dr. Johnson and beyond. This way of thinking denies the audience a double vision and the performer a twofold presence. When the actor was an amateur, a fellow townsman known to the spectators in a real-life context, a certain willing suspension of disbelief had to enter into play. The sacred narrative temporarily occludes mundane familiarity, while the familiarity levels the exalted spirituality of the sacred. A kind of double exposure occurs, with the devotional image laid over but not concealing the flesh-and-blood simulacrum. Intense faith in the former enables acceptance of the latter.

Guiding Principle

Fair value is the amount that would have been received in an orderly transaction. The term “orderly transaction” is defined as a transaction that assumes exposure to the market for a period before the measurement date to allow for marketing activities that are usual and customary for transactions involving such assets or liabilities; it is not a forced transaction (e.g., a forced liquidation or distress sale).

International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 13 and Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 820 recognize that the sale price that will be determined in a transaction between market participants may also depend on the extent of exposure to the market and on the situation of the parties to the transaction. As an example, let us assume that a reporting entity is required to measure the fair value of a large office building it owns. The selling process of such an office building may take time (e.g., six months), due to the size of the transaction, the need to find a suitable buyer, the performance of due diligence procedures (to evaluate financial, legal and physical aspects of the building and transaction) by potential buyers, conducting negotiations, raising funding by the buyer and so forth. If the reporting entity will be forced to dispose of the building quickly, this might be reflected in a lower transaction price, since under such circumstances, the reporting entity will be unable to find an optimal buyer or to allow buyers to complete sufficient due diligence procedures or raise adequate funding, which will increase the level of risk undertaken by the potential buyers and may lead them to offer a significantly lower price for the property in order to justify their undertaking of the risk. It is also recognized that the normal period of marketing efforts depends on the nature of the measured item. While a relatively long period of market exposure is required for the abovementioned office building, more standard assets, such as cars or apartments, usually require a shorter normal period.

The term “orderly transaction” is important for two main reasons:

Firstly, this term instructs the reporting entity to measure the fair value as the price that would have been obtained in a hypothetical orderly transaction, even if the reporting entity has not actually taken steps to sell the asset prior to the measurement date.

Thinking as the Magic Wand

1.1. Even before I knew what philosophical bewilderment is, I remember being bewildered by the following question: supposing that what happens in our minds is governed by nothing but mechanical laws of association, how is it that we are capable of thinking to a purpose, that is, to find relevant and correct solutions to the various problems we face? It must, I thought, be a matter of chance if a chain of blind associations is to lead me to a good answer. I should, apparently, have to know in what direction I need to be going even before I get started. But if I could know that, on the other hand, what would I need the thinking for?

Here I was in the grip of a philosophical picture, one that has in effect dominated philosophical thought about human reason in the modern age, if not longer. According to this picture, reason or thought involves the exercise of a specific cognitive capacity, one that underlies, and is separable from, its manifestations in speech and conduct. This picture has been widely influential in Western philosophy and psychology, and is deeply entrenched in common ways of thinking and speaking. On this view, the human capacity for thought is required in order to explain certain pervasive features of human life, features that, it is believed, would be utterly mysterious in its absence. In this vein, the psychologist Donald Hebb refers to ‘man's mental capacities and the behavior they make possible, the behavior that most clearly distinguishes him from other animals’.

But here is the conundrum: how is the faculty itself to be explained? It has, it seems, to fulfil two requirements that seem hard to reconcile with one another. On the one hand, it is assumed that engaging in thought is advantageous: someone who tries to think things through is certain, or is highly likely, to be better placed for solving any given problem than if she had not tried: this activity, as it were, has the direction of success built into it. On the other hand, since thinking is taken to constitute a mechanical, nature-given, impersonal process, the ability to think well about things is given to anyone willing to spend the time and effort; it does not require any special talent or training.

Fair value, currently a very significant measurement base in financial statements, and a commonly used term in itself, is, somewhat surprisingly, a relatively new term in the world of accounting. Just to illustrate, the Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements, originally published in 1989 by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), makes no reference whatsoever to this term. This is despite the fact that measurement bases having similar or overlapping principles, such as present value or realizable value, are, indeed, mentioned.

The term “fair value” was first mentioned in US Generally Accepted Principles (US GAAP) in Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 7 regarding Using Cash Flow Information and Present Value in Accounting Measurements, published by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in 2000, although parts of the definition itself but not the term “fair value” were already used in Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 6 regarding Elements of Financial Statements, originally published in 1985.

Over the years, fair value has been used increasingly by the world's leading accounting standard-setting bodies, both for measurement and for disclosure purposes. Thus, for example, using fair value as a measurement base is currently widespread in measurement of financial instruments and business combinations, and under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), fair value is also employed to measure investment property. As fair value became an increasingly used measurement base, the need to formulate a uniform and consistent rationale for fair value measurement has arisen, along with the need to put in place comprehensive disclosure principles that will provide financial statements’ users with additional information, among other things, about the reliability of fair value estimates. This rationale was first reflected in US GAAP in Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157—Fair Value Measurements (SFAS 157) and thereafter in the provisions of IFRS upon publication of IFRS 13—Fair Value Measurement, which, in effect, converged with the American standard.

This book aims to serve as a comprehensive guide to fair value measurement. In this book, we gradually unfold a comprehensive framework of fair value measurement from a detail-oriented and practical standpoint, both pursuant to IFRS 13 and Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 820. This is done while referring to subtle nuances between the two accounting standard systems, including with regard to disclosure.

Introduction

This chapter aims to elaborate on the research methodology and selected methods. The chosen methods and methodology should be question-oriented, so the research questions will be reviewed at first. To justify my selection of methodology and methods, I will discuss these questions in relation to the epistemology and theoretical perspective. Further, I will explain the methods for data collection and analysis. In the end, I will introduce the essential information of method operationalization such as the timeframe, media selection, sampling and participant recruitment.

Review of Research Questions

According to Du Plooy (2009), the research methodology decides the nature of data and research questions. Thus, it is necessary to review the research questions so that I can explain how the research questions can be well addressed within the methodology I adopt. As stated in Chapter 3, soft power will not be examined as a capacity but a constitutive relationship. A country's external soft power does not only rely on its soft power promotion but also on overseas audience interpretation. The values and morality that are implied by good governance and the rule of law are generally identical, but the specific institutions or approaches vary considerably among countries, regions and individuals. Therefore, examining China's external soft power in the light of its domestic governance and the rule of law needs to inquire how media and audiences process its projection. The main research questions and subquestions are listed below:

Overall research question: How congruent is the discourse in China and Australia concerning China's governance approach and the rule of law?

Sub-question 1:

How does China view its governance approach and the rule of law?

Sub-question 2:

How does Australia view China's domestic governance and the rule of law?

• 2.1 How does the Australian media view China's domestic governance and the rule of law?

• 2.2 How do Australian intermediate elites view China's domestic governance and the rule of law?

Addressing the overall question aims to draw a picture of how soft power is associated with good governance and the rule of law in Chinese and Western discourse. In Chapter 2, by examining the discussion of China's and Western scholars, I have identified the potential congruent and incongruent parts of the two countries’ discourse.

As I have tried to suggest more than once, the 1835 break-up of the third of Hawthorne's early collections— “The Story Teller”— is a sadly significant event in the literary history of America in the nineteenth century. And beyond. In the historic moment, it almost certainly contributed to the author's growing discouragement about the viability of a literary career: how long could one go on writing anonymously (or pseudonymously) for magazines and yearbooks? Surely we are not to understand the year (1836) spent editing The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge as anything but a last resort. To be sure, the quality of the editing, and of Hawthorne's own contributions, is fairly high. Then too, the literary enterprise appeared to be rescued when a former classmate subvented the publication of the Twice-Told Tales. Yet the rescue was hardly complete. That collection may have opened an “intercourse with the world” for this “obscurest man of letters in America,” but it was far from the kind of thing the author originally had in mind.

Essentially a miscellany— pairing “Wakefield” with “A Rill from the Town Pump,” “Endicott and the Red Cross” with “The Lily's Quest”— it altogether lacks the kind of formal and thematic unity Hawthorne had clearly aimed at in his out-setting “Seven Tales of My Native Land,” which seemed to be experimenting with the enforced combination of gothic and domestic sentiment, and the astonishingly sophisticated “Provincial Tales,” in which Hawthorne's ironic patriotism might frighten Oliver Stone. And it published most of the tales intended for “The Story-Teller” quite apart from the scenes of their local performance, whose “frames” their narrator had modestly suggested might be “more valuable than the pictures themselves”; and, significantly for this study, without benefit of their fully characterized Narrator— an orphan in the care of a puritanic minister, then a run-away, committed to story-telling against all New England odds, the traveling companion of one Eliakim Abbott, who looks to the Story-Teller somewhat like an “unfledged divine from Andover” (180), and whose memory Hawthorne called to mind when he first came to understand Jones Very. Nothing else remotely like this in the early years of a tenuously emergent American belles lettres. An experiment complex enough to warrant its own chapter in Anybody's History of Narratology

The present chapter contains the theoretic foundation of this book. Here, I set out the Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP) in detail sufficient to explain occupational devotion. The spotlight will be primarily on amateurs and hobbyists. Consequently, comparatively little will be said about casual leisure and project-based leisure. Volunteering will be considered to the extent that it is a precursor to certain liberal and consulting professions.

The Serious Leisure Perspective

The SLP is the theoretic framework that synthesizes three main forms of leisure, which is accomplished by showing their distinctive features, similarities and interrelationships. Those forms have been labeled serious leisure (recently renamed as serious pursuits to include devotee work), casual leisure and project-based leisure. They are also shaped by a variety of psychological, social, cultural and historical conditions.

Many of the roots of the Perspective date to late 1973, even though the concept itself was only formally introduced and elaborated much later in Stebbins (2007/2015). It takes its name from serious leisure, mainly because that form was the first to be studied. Research began in 1973 on the first of these (it examined amateurs in classical music and was reported in, among other publications, Stebbins [1976]). Work continued from thereon, consisting of more studies of other amateurs, then various hobbyists, career volunteers, casual leisure participants and enthusiasts attracted to project-based leisure. Within each form, numerous types and subtypes have also emerged over the years. The SLP and the research backing it are discussed in greater detail in Stebbins (2012, 2020).

Additionally, the Perspective considers how the three forms serve as conceptual umbrellas for a range of types of related activities. My research findings and theoretic musings over nearly 50 years have nevertheless evolved, coalescing into a typological map of the domain of leisure. That is, as far as is known at present, all leisure (at least in Western society) can be classified according to one of the three forms and their several types and subtypes. Figure 1.1 portrays the typological structure of the SLP. Note that this is a map, since the reader must go to Stebbins (2012, 2020) to learn what terms like hobbyist, casual leisure and career volunteer mean. In other words, this typology is a theoretic rather than a descriptive construction. The same holds for Table 1.1, which sets out a typology of volunteers anchored in the SLP.

How good a living is possible by devotee work? The foregoing chapters suggest a most complex answer to this question. It roots in the observation that money has been a problem for over two centuries. Thus, Sophocles, ancient Greek priest, general and tragic poet, lamented in his drama Antigone that “there's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.” Accordingly, the main part of this chapter examines the bread-and-butter issue of getting paid to do devotee work. A passage from Stebbins (2004/2014, 91– 100), paraphrased in the next section, sheds further light on the matter.

Are They Paid so They May Work?

Most people, lured by the opposite logic of this proposition, work so they may be paid. When work is uninteresting, but still decently remunerative, workers can at least sustain life and, with whatever money that is leftover, enjoy a bit of the smorgasbord of consumer opportunities that the commercial world lays out before them. A lifetime of uninteresting work is a high price to pay for economic survival and some spending cash, but many a modern worker finds just this bargain with that person's educational qualifications and personal standards for occupational success.

When work is highly attractive, however, this conventional orientation toward it and its remuneration often gets stood on its head. Still, the relationship of remuneration to devotee work is complicated, as is evident in the different economic situations that devotees live in or strive to live in.

Economic situation

“Economic situation” is my term for the level of living made possible by a person's disposable wealth, that being in most instances his occupational income, though in some instances, it includes returns on investments. Applied to occupational devotion, economic situation can be conceptualized as arrayed along a scale of increasing wealth that runs from poverty to opulence. The low end of the scale is anchored in poverty and near poverty, where the devotee is desperately trying to make a living, but so far with little monetary success. Here is the home of the legendary starving artist and the minimally successful small business proprietor. Here, money earned at devotee work is problematic only, though still very profoundly, in that there is little or none of it.

China's Projection

Overview

A total of 199 reports regarding China's anti-corruption campaign were collected from the database. Out of this, 39 reports were eliminated during the analysis due to irrelevant topics. The study identified two frame packages: In the Name of People and Political Reform. The proportions of each frame are shown in Table 6.

In the name of people

Responsive governance is the most significant frame package. It builds a discourse that the campaign is a responsive action to the widespread corruption and public expectation. Three frames constitute this frame package: Party's discipline, People's expectation and the struggle with corruption. The discourse implied by the package resonates well with Huntingdon's view that the ruling legitimacy of the Chinese government is gradually transformed from Marxism-Leninism's revolution into its governing performance (Huntington, 1996).

Party's discipline

Party's discipline is the most significant frame of this package (N= 77, 48%). It stresses the party's role in this campaign. The party is portrayed as an organization imposing strict discipline on its members and constant vigilance against corruption. It tries to convey the idea that the party's ruling status depends heavily on cadres’ behaviours and credibility in public perceptions. The party, therefore, should always be on high alert for any corruption taking place.

Many reports point out the urgency of curbing corruption, emphasizing that self-correction is an essential approach to maintaining the party's stability and efficiency. For example:

The frame can be easily perceived as many reports appeal to several principles, for example:

Overview

While the rule-based US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP) do not widely adopt fair value as a measurement basis, this is not the case with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). The latter currently use fair value quite extensively, both for measurement and for disclosure purposes, with one of the key differences lying in the revaluation of investment property and property, plant and equipment (PPE) allowed only under IFRS.

However, fair value as a measurement basis is a relatively new accounting concept, at least from a historical perspective. Interestingly, the Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements (for International Accounting Standards (IASs)), originally published in 1989, made no mention of the term. It did mention several other possible measurement bases, such as historical cost, present value, current cost and realizable value. However, the conceptual difference, if any, between the various measurement bases—other than historical cost—was not clearly explained.

Over the years, the IASs underwent significant changes, with one of the most important presumably being the growing use of fair value as a measurement basis. Fair value also sometimes doubles as an acceptable basis for disclosure. However, prior to the formulation of IFRS 13—Fair Value Measurement, other IASs offered no unified definition of this measurement basis, nor did they provide a consistent framework for its estimation. Consequently, certain IASs that made use of fair value (for several current examples, see Section 2), as well as the related practice, were not always consistent in applying the measurement principles and even in its basic definition. In addition, some of the Standards, such as IAS 39—Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement, which was later superseded by IFRS 9—Financial Instruments, included a relatively detailed set of guidelines regarding the measurement of fair value, while other Standards, such as IAS 41—Agriculture, only included limited guidelines.

Originally published in 2000, US GAAP Concepts Statement 7 did discuss the fair value basis of measurement, but a similar phenomenon of multiple definitions and limited guidance was also the case under US GAAP prior to the publication of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157—Fair Value Measurements in 2006 (SFAS 157). The US national accounting standardsetter, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), was the first of the two accounting standard-setters to address this problem, with the publication of SFAS 157.

John Searle makes this remark in a television talk with Bryan Magee about the philosophy of Wittgenstein. He is expressing a difficulty about understanding Wittgenstein's thoughts about religion, accusing him of wishing to have it both ways, both accepting and rejecting the reality of God. Here I shall not discuss Searle's reading of Wittgenstein, rather I quote him because his words seem to me to be representative of a type of response often made to certain ways of regarding religious faith.

I take the phrase ‘a God up there’ as Searle's way of emphasizing that he wishes his words to be taken literally. He is reacting to Wittgenstein's observation that in order to get clear about what people say in speaking about God we should start by looking at the practices to which their words belong. Searle, it appears, is giving vent to a kind of impatience, insisting that, philosophical subtleties aside, what gives point to those practices and ways of speaking, quite simply, is the belief in the reality of God. The words and practices are secondary to the belief, he wants to say. This type of impatience is not uncommon. ‘When all is said and done’, someone may say, ‘the bottom line is this: either there is a God up there or there isn’t’. She may feel that there is a great deal of hedging going on, for instance, when some theologians speak about spiritual matters: ‘God is present in our love for one another’, ‘The story of the resurrection is a symbol of hope’, ‘When the bread is turned into the body of Christ, what this really means is that we are all united in the church’, ‘Saying that there is something of God in each one of us means that even the lowliest among us is infinitely valuable’, or ‘It means that everyone is entitled to dignity and respect’, etc.

Assuming Responsibility for One's Decisions

Suppose I worry about a decision to be made. I express my worry by saying things like, ‘I’m thinking of doing this but I don't know if I can’, or in the form of a question, ‘Can I do that?’ I may be asking for medical, technical or legal advice, or for advice on etiquette (‘Can I eat this with my gall condition?’, ‘Is this the right place to apply the car jack?’, ‘What is the law of this country regarding insider deals?’, ‘Should I bring flowers if I’m invited to dinner?’).

Introduction

In the previous chapters, I have presented the findings of media reports and in-depth interviews. This chapter aims to discuss the findings that emerged from the analyses and explore factors of significance. After addressing each research proposition and question, I will present my conclusion at the end of the chapter. Theoretical implications and their significance in terms of soft power, framing analysis, and China's public diplomacy will be explained based on the discussions presented in the ensuing sections. After this, I discuss the limitations of this project and the prospects for future research in related areas.

Congruity of Findings from the Newspapers

The study analyzed 400 reports from selected newspapers. Of these, 179 are from Australian newspapers and 221 are from China’s. Next, I will discuss the frames and packages that have been identified from the reports and examine their congruity.

Congruity of the frames about China's domestic governance

China's domestic governance in the China's newspapers

According to the frame packages, China is certainly satisfied with, or even proud of, its progress over the past few decades. The two frame packages also reflect the intention to promote the governance model. The China model refers to a series of discussions on the principles, features, and advantages of the governance approach. The frame package Alternative path reflects China's intention to promote its political model overseas and use it as a part of soft power. The intentions implied by the findings resonate with the theory espoused by Chitty (2017) and Vuving (2009): that if a country's governance performance is exceptional, it will be rewarded with the admiration of other countries and yield external soft power accordingly. Louw (2013) agrees, adding that China's state-led model and its economic success are highly appealing to other developing states. However, it should be noted that China holds an uncertain and perplexing attitude regarding model promotion. The frame Role model? Reflects the inconsistent stance of media reports. Twenty-four reports queried the feasibility that other countries could learn from China's experience or apply its governance model. As a result, the newspapers have expressed conflicting opinions but there is a detectable tendency that China increasingly considers its model as soft power, as shown in Figure 10.

As the world's second-largest economy, the People's Republic of China (henceforth China) has begun to play an increasingly important role in the international community. Being susceptible to suspicion in the international community because of its military development and the size of its economy, China has invested heavily in developing its capacity to influence attitudes and discourse by using its soft power resources. The most notable projects are based on the promotion of traditional culture (Confucius Institute) or the expansion of media agencies. This monograph focuses on the impact of China's domestic politics, especially some of the latest developments in soft power projection that have occurred during the fifth-generation leadership.

Chitty (2017, p. 27) argues that soft power has two vectors: internal and external. Good governance and the rule of law represent high-quality internal soft power that generates external soft power as a by-product. The main task of this study is to examine China's soft power in Australia regarding its own domestic politics, particularly in terms of its governance model and the rule of law. The anti-corruption campaign and the targeted poverty alleviation were selected as cases to examine if China's soft power was enhanced. The research involves an empirical analysis of Chinese and Australian media as well as in-depth interviews with Australian public diplomacy experts. The congruity between China's promotion of its soft power and Australia's interpretation of it offers a better understanding of the interplay between domestic politics and soft power in international communication.

The Social Background and Challenges

There is no doubt that it is challenging to govern a state like present-day China, a country with a fast-growing economy and a rapidly changing society. China has made great economic progress since the reform and open-door policy began in the late 1970s. The reform has accelerated the process of modernization and urbanization. But compared with the economic development, the work in social reforms and political reforms has not been as smooth. The economic reform and the internet brought on challenges that previous generations have not ever faced.

Like the man said, Poetry is more philosophical than History. Not that we still care that much about philosophy: most people would agree with my post-Jesuit brother who defines it as that one thing with or without which everything else remains the same. Or poetry either, for that matter, as the enrollments in our English classes will testify: long lines for the American novel; for any period of American verse, not so much. But still we appear to take the point: literature— though Aristotle hardly had that concept— can scarcely afford to care about the over-determining details of one singular event; give us, if not the generalization, then at least the present application. Especially in a classroom situation: Hawthorne's once-famous “ambivalence” about his Puritans and his Revelers is more likely to generate enthusiasm than a cautious account of how his self-proclaimed “allegory” appeared in fact to assemble itself out of a series of footnotes to William Bradford.

But somewhat more is at issue than the limitations of our ever-more-distracted undergraduates. We too expect literature to offer us more than a contrived version of something that just happened to happen. Once. In a more or less endless list of events that mattered no doubt, but which probably could have been otherwise, and which in any event seem controlled by forces no longer in visible operation. Humanity may or not progress, but things change. History itself, we think, must do more than state the facts: find the connection or reveal the law; otherwise, life is just too short, the press of the present too insistent. And if history, then literature a fortiori. Hawthorne himself warns the tooliteral reader not to go looking for The House of the Seven Gables, and assures us that the writer of romance binds himself less to the facts of the local case than to the “laws of the human heart.” So what exactly does this moral essentialist mean by also insisting, as it has come to seem he most certainly does, that we attend to the historical references in so many of his best wrought tales? Where does he get off in loading his tales and sketches, and even his long-form fictions, with historical allusions that beg to be identified and that, often enough, lead us to some necessary historical pretext of the fiction in question?

By the time Hawthorne began composing The Scarlet Letter— at or near the time of his enforced departure from the Salem Custom House in 1849— he was already a very accomplished writer of subtly moralized fiction. But he was not in any sense a “novelist.” True, this once obscure, now well-recognized writer of “twice-told tales” had begun his career with the publication of a novella called Fanshawe (1828); and, close to the moment in question, “Ethan Brand” (1849) may have been originally planned as a much longer work. But in the first case it appears that Hawthorne tried to dissociate himself from a piece of juvenilia almost as soon as it was issued; and the most the fifteen pages of “Ethan Brand” can claim is that they are “A Chapter from an Abortive Romance.” So that, whatever his evolving intentions, the writer of The Scarlet Letter still would have to teach himself how to write what elementary theory calls a “specific continuous fiction”; and indeed the formal interest of this first of Hawthorne's three “American Romances” may well concern the question of how to make a luminous moral tale take 200 pages.

It is easy to imagine that, with the publication of his Mosses from an Old Manse in 1846, Hawthorne felt he had pretty well exhausted his short fiction method— of positing a moral premise, often inherited from history, and then watching it consume both itself and some unhappily credulous host, in a reading time brief enough to satisfy the minimalist demands of Edgar Poe. Clearly a tale like “Rappaccini's Daughter” (1844), the masterpiece of the Mosses, was pressing at the limits, both of length and of manageable allusion. And the sketch that introduces the Mosses concedes that it is “the last collection of this nature” the writer intends ever to publish. It may be a recognizable sort of false modesty for him to say “unless I could do better, I have done enough in this kind,” but the note of completion sounds authentic; and though there is some ambiguity about the exact form in which the elongated tale of Hester and Dimmesdale was first planned to appear, it seems clear enough that the writer of The Scarlet Letter had prepared himself for a literary change of pace.