sallies, ingenious raillery and severe morality. They speak of everything in order that every one may have something to say: they do not investigate too closely, for fear of wearying questions are introduced as if by-the-bye, and are treated with rapidity; precision leads to elegance, each one giving his opinion, and supporting it with few words. No one attacks wantonly another's opinion, no one supports his own obstinately. They discuss in order to enlighten themselves, and leave off discussing where dispute would begin : every one gains information, every one recreates himself, and all go away contented; nay, the sage himself may carry away from what he has heard matter worthy of silent meditation.

(Page 19.)

CONVERSATION.

Confidence furnishes conversation with more

than wit does.

(Page 20.)

MERIT.

If you wish your merit to be known, recognise

that of other people.

(Page 21.)

TALKATIVENESS.

We talk little when vanity does not prompt us to talk.

READING.

Stupid people read a book and do not understand it: those of average intelligence think they understand it perfectly: great minds do not always understand it entirely; that appears to them obscure which is obscure, just as that seems to them clear which is clear. Those who would seem clever try to look upon that as obscure which is clear, and endeavour not to understand what is very intelligible.

(Page 22.)

ORIGINALITY OF STYLE.

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.

(Page 23.)

SEEMING OBSCURITY OF STYLE.

He who would reproach an author for obscurity should look into his own mind (lit. inner-self) to see whether it is quite clear there. In the dusk the plainest writing is illegible.

OBSCURITY OF STYLE.

With regard to obscurity, there are two kinds of blundering the simple, when what is written is unintelligible; the double, when the writer himself cannot make out what he means.

MODERN AUTHORS.

The most original modern authors are not so because they advance what is new; but simply because they know how to put what they have to say as if it had never been said before.

(Page 24.)

COMMENTARIES.

There is more concern now-a-days to interpret interpretations, than to interpret things; and more

books about books than about any other subject: we do nothing but expound one another.

BEATING ABOUT FOR THE RIGHT WORD.

A good and careful author often finds that the expression which he has been seeking for a long time, and has at last found, is the most simple and natural, and the very one which seems as if it should have presented itself at first, and without effort.

(Page 26.)

LOVE.

Love is only an episode in the life of a man; it is the entire history of the life of a woman.

LOVE BEFORE MARRIAGE.

Love before marriage is like a too short preface before a book without end.

(Page 27.)

INGRATITUDE.

He is ungrateful who denies that he has received a kindness which has been bestowed upon him; he is ungrateful who conceals it from others; he is ungrateful who makes no return for it: most ungrateful of all is he who forgets it.

(Page 28.)

BRILLIANT THOUGHTS IN ORATORY.

Brilliant thoughts are, I consider, as it were the eyes of eloquence; but I would not that the body were all eyes, lest the other members should lose their proper functions.

BRILLIANT THOUGHTS.

What we call a brilliant thought is ordinarily nothing more than a captious expression which, by the help of a dash of truth, imposes upon us an error which sets us wondering.