Various

“ But reading is not all. You must "use your head."18 And you must, and can, keep it too. For a good man's head is not like a seed-cake that passes in the using. And, again, remember the proverb that "manners makyth man"; though this is not the true cause of the over-population of our islands. In social life much will depend on the way in which you behave to others. ”

“ A day or two after I met Miss Phill Burtt, and asked her to go and canvass the old woman; I felt sure she could secure her vote. Will it be believed that she wouldn't? She said it would be really undue influence if she did. How strange that even the nicest of women are so strangely unpractical at times! Another woman she refused to see because she never called upon her at ordinary times. ”

“ Is it not time, considering that there is nothing of particular interest attracting public attention, that a protest should be raised against the "Society" plays which occupy the stages of some of our best theatres? ”

“ Remember these words of Dickens, in his Pictures from Italy, as I start from Pisa to see that lovely coast, and the Mediterranean, for the first time.
Pisa is sleepy, but the railway officials are wide awake. The man who sells me my ticket "forgets" one lira. This answers capitally with innocent old ladies from England or Germany. The old lady counts her change, and if she has carefully ascertained the fare by reading the price marked on her ticket, she finds at once that there is a halfpenny wanting. She never learns that this is the Government tax. ”

“ If he'd said a Beast now! (Aloud, as Pilliner enters with Captain Thicknesse.) Hullo, why here's Thicknesse! So you haven't gone after all, then?
Captain Thicknesse. What an observant young beggar you are, Bearpark! Nothin' escapes you. No, I haven't. (To Sir Rupert, rather sheepishly.) Fact is, Sir, I—I somehow just missed the train, and—and—thought I might as well come back, instead of waitin' about, don't you know.
Sir Rupert (heartily) . Why, of course, my dear boy, of course! Never have forgiven you if you hadn't. Great nuisance for you, though. Hope you blew the fool of a man up ”

“ When I do a thing, I like to do it properly, for even my worst enemies, who call me a fool, admit that I'm a thorough fool. I have accordingly lost no time in getting to work at my electoral campaign. I commenced at a great disadvantage. The other seven candidates were electioneering for a week before the Parish Meeting, and the result was that they all polled three times as many votes as I did. ”

“ I have bin a having quite a long tork with a most respecful looking Gent who tells me he is a reel County Counsellor, and that they has a Gildhall of their own at Charing Cross, where they meets ewery week, the same as the Common Counsellors does at their reel Gildhall in the Citty, and that they has quite made up their minds to make the two Gildhalls into one and have them both for theirselves, and that that will be what they calls Hunifikashun, which means everything for them and not nothink for nobody else. ”

“ Permit me to keep the ball a rolling. Why is the "young lady of fifteen" to be alone protected? Are not the boys and girls of an older growth to be also preserved from contamination? What is to be done for that large class of playgoers who have entered their second childhood?
Communication No. 6, dated Saturday.
Now that a piece at present being played at a West-End theatre has been well advertised for a whole week in the more largely-read columns of a most influential daily paper, it is to be sincerely hoped that Box and Cox are satisfied. ”

“ Books are an educational force. They "have often been compared to friends,"6 whom we "never cut."7 They "are better than all the tarts and toys in the world."8 It is not generally known that "English literature is the inheritance of the English race,"9 on whose Empire, by the way, "the sun never sets." ”

“ I'm rather sorry that that Miss Spelwane couldn't stay. She's a trifle angular—but clever. It was distinctly sharp of her to see through that fellow Spurrell from the first, and lay such an ingenious little trap for him. And she has a great feeling for Literature—knows my verses by heart, I discovered, quite accidentally. All the same, I wish she hadn't intercepted those snowdrops. Now I shall have to go out and pick some more. (Sounds outside in the entrance hall.) Too late—they've got back from church!
Mrs. Brooke-Chatteris (entering with Lady Rhoda, Sir Rupert, and Bearpark) . ”

“ And when he found as I reelly didn't beleeve a word of his wunderful stories, he acshally arsked me to go with him to their Gildhall at Charing Cross, and there he put me in a nice seat, and then I heard em all torking away, jest as if they were quite in ernest, all about the many wunderful things as they was about to do soon! Oh, I wunders how long it will be before any on em reelly happens? Not in my life time I'll be bound, nor most likely in nobody elses! Did any reesonable man, woman or child ever hear such a pack of nonsense? ”

“ There is an obscure dictum that "money is the root of all evil." "Gold! gold!"21 said an ill-known poet, and, on the other hand, "Hail, independence!"22 said another. "If thou art rich, thou'rt poor"23 is on the face of it an untruth. ”

“ But "life is real, life is earnest,"13 and we have no time to study original thinkers such as Confucius and Tupper. "Altiora Peto"14 is a saying for the leisured class only. The mass must get its wisdom second-hand and concentrated. If "reading maketh a full man,"15 this kind of reading maketh a man to burst. ”

“ My Baronitess writes:—S. Baring Gould turns into delightful English prose some of the ancient Icelandic Sagas, or songs, and shows us how Grettir the Outlaw was a Grettir man than was generally supposed by anyone who had never heard very much about him. When he departed, was he very much Re-grettir'd by all who knew him?
Messrs. Macmillan offer My New Home, provided by Mrs. Molesworth, which many of the little "new" women would like to see. ”

“ Lady Culv. Then of course we must let you do exactly as you please. (All, except Miss Spelwane, breathe more freely; Tredwell appears.) Oh, lunch, is it, Tredwell? Very well. By-the-bye, see that some one packs Mr. Undershell's things for him, and tell them to send the dogcart round after lunch in time to catch the 3.15 from Shuntingbridge.
Pill. (sotto voce, to Archie) . And let us pray that the cart is properly balanced before starting, this time!
Miss Spelwane (to herself, piqued) . Going already! I wish I had never touched his ridiculous snowdrops! ”

“ The right hon. gentleman was under the impression that he had come across the character in the course of his reading of Dickens' Christmas stories, and, wanting to say something nice of his noble friend, he just mentioned it. It led to some misunderstanding at the time, but has now been forgotten. See our answer to "Three Cows and an Acre" in the Christmas Number.
Residuary Legatee.—Certainly you may recover, especially if you can get A. to refund the money. Don't hesitate to sue. We make a practice of never accepting fees. ”

“ Athletic young chap that. Glad to see him in the field next Tuesday. By the way, Albinia, you've heard how Thicknesse here contrived to miss his train this morning? Our gain, of course; but still we must manage to get you back to Aldershot to-night, my boy, or you'll get called over the coals by your Colonel when you do put in an appearance, hey? Now, let's see; what train ought you to catch? ”

“ Sir Philip Sidney was, as all the world knows, "a veray parfit gentil knight." Possibility of this presupposition of knowledge is fortunate, since Miss Anna M. Stoddart's account of this heroic figure is not, my Baronite sorrowfully says, likely to convey any adequate idea of its personality. Mr. Fox Bourne and Mr. Addington Symonds have written biographies of the Elizabethan soldier, in which he boldly stands forth. Miss Stoddart modestly says her object is "in no way to compete with" these standard works. But why write at all? The marvel is, as Dr. ”

“ Chapter I.—De Omnibus Rebus.
"Ars longa, vita brevis;"1 and indeed "man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long."2 An oriental writer has told us that "all flesh is grass," to which a Scots poet3 has replied, that "A man's a man for a' that." ”