Nothing is more easy than to state the subject of The Ambassadors, which first appeared in twelve numbers of The North American Review (1903) and was published as a whole the same year. The situation involved is gathered up betimes, that is in the second chapter of Bk. Fifth, for the reader's benefit, into as few words as possible - planted or "sunk," stiffly and saliently, in the centre of the current, almost perhaps to the obstruction of traffic.