IN Stephen Leacock our generation possesses a humorist of the very first. rank ; a writer who, for sheer ' funniness,' can fitly bo compared with Dickens in his most ridiculous mood. Also, he is a satirist- of- society to a degree that might not be immediately apparent to an unobservant reader, but that may become more perceptible to- those who listen to Mr. Pearse's concluding talk.