if a man be discreet enough to take to hard drinking in his youth, before his general emptiness is ascertained, his friends invariably credit him with a host of shining qualities which, we are given to understand, lie balked and frustrated by his one unfortunate weakness.

The sanguine assurance that men and nations can be legislated into goodness, that pressure from without is equivalent to a moral change within, needs a strong backing of inexperience.

The worst in life, we are told, is compatible with the best in art. So too the worst in life is compatible with the best in humour.

The necessity of knowing a little about a great many things is the most grievous burden of our day. It deprives us of leisure on the one hand, and of scholarship on the other.

Just as we are often moved to merriment for no other reason than that the occasion calls for seriousness, so we are correspondingly serious when invited too freely to be amused.

For indeed all that we think so new to-day has been acted over and over again, a shifting comedy, by the women of every century.

I do strive to think well of my fellow man, but no amount of striving can give me confidence in the wisdom of a congressional vote.