youth, balancing itself upon hope, is forever in extremes: its expectations are continually aroused only to be baffled, and disappointment, like a summer shower, is violent in proportion to its brevity.

Oh, only those whose souls have felt this one idolatry can tell how precious is the slightest thing affection gives and hallows.

I have no parting sigh to give, so take my parting smile.

Society is like a large piece of frozen water; and skating well is the great art of social life.

To be rude is as good as being clever.

How very satisfactory those discussions must be, where each party retains their own opinion!

I cannot love evergreens - they are the misanthropes of nature. To them the spring brings no promise, the autumn no decline; they are cut off from the sweetest of all ties with their kind - sympathy. ... I will have no evergreens in my garden; when the inevitable winter comes, every beloved plant and favorite tree shall drop together - no solitary fir left to triumph over the companionship of decay.