Various

“ What truly great man, who does not pander to the littlenesses of truly little men, ever fails to make some enemies? It could not be otherwise. His inviolable integrity, his blameless name, the splendid disdain with which he spurned everything false and mean—such qualities as these in Moore made some of a baser type turn from and even turn against one so infinitely more noble than themselves. ”

“ It may not be pleasant, but the fact remains that nineteen people out of twenty feel not the smallest interest in you or your concerns except in so far as the outcome is agreeable to them, and this not exactly from want of heart so much as from want of time to stop and consider you, when there are so many others near and dear to them to be thought of. At all events, so it is, and any person who hangs about a room when she might as well go out of it, or worries people by airing her own opinions when nobody wishes to hear them, is decidedly in the way, and neither more nor less than a bore. ”

“ Oh, oh, oh! She has mixed paregoric and treacle with the water! Oh, what will I do! what will I do! This child will be the death of me!" Mrs. Asplin put her hand to her side, and laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks, while Mellicent rolled about on the floor, and Esther's quiet "He, he, he!" filled up the intervals between the bursts of merriment.
Peggy was marched off to have her hair re-washed and rinsed, and came back ten minutes later, proudly complacent, to seat herself in the most comfortable stool and eat roast apple with elegant enjoyment. ”

“ It was different when she turned to a bed at the end of the ward, a little apart from the others, where lay, unconscious, one of those sad cases, repulsive and loathsome, in which "the King's image" is disfigured almost beyond recognition by a life of sin and self-indulgence.
At one time Sister Warwick had found it hard to be as careful and tender with these—pity she never failed in. ”

“ Sister Warwick was one who always felt the full responsibility of the life she had to live. Seven years before, after the governors of the hospital had offered her the coveted position of Sister of one of these hospital wards, she had written to her mother—
"It is very trying work beginning to be a Sister—more so than you can possibly imagine. To feel the whole weight of your domain weighing on you, a family of thirty to care for, and nurses to guide and train, is very appalling, very full of care." ”

“ Under its old but ridiculous title of "poker work" it has flourished from time immemorial; gifted by some unknown genius with the modern name of Pyrography, it bids fair to become a universal favourite among the amusements of art-loving amateurs, but, owing to want of support, has not hitherto been much adopted by the professional artist who alone possesses the graphic skill, the power of technique and the breadth of execution which would do justice to such a beautiful art. ”

“ Many girls do this and fancy that there is something wrong with the hair and that they are going bald.
It is natural for the hair to comb out. The life of a hair is of very varying duration, but it only lives a certain time. At the expiration of this time it dies, and a new hair springs from the same root. If it were not for this, what do you think would be the state of the hair at fifty?
Now let us look at the causes of the hair falling out excessively and the resulting condition—baldness. ”

“ But to men of a higher and purer stamp Moore was as the Bayard of the Middle Ages had been to a former generation, a knight sans peur et sans reproche, a model upon which they might seek to shape themselves. ”

“ A silent dinner is a very depressing function, so much so indeed that among the disadvantages of living alone must be counted solitary meals, as not only saddening in their effect upon the mind, but provocative of bad digestion in the body ”

“ Most unexpected things do happen in medicine, and it requires a long time to decide whether a drug has any good effect, even though it may have apparently cured one or two persons. You are hardly likely to have discovered any new drug, and most of the medicines used in England, whether in the pharmacopœia or not, have been exhaustively studied. Those drugs which are not official are not given a place in the pharmacopœia, either because they are of insufficient value or because they have not yet been sufficiently studied. ”

“ The hair may lose its lustre from many causes. Dandruff is the commonest cause of this, but a very fertile factor in the causation of brittle lustreless hair is the constant employment of pomatums and greases to the hair. Nature supplies you with hair-oil of first-class quality. Every hair has two glands to secrete this oil (sebum) . If you use an artificial grease (which can only be of a tenth-rate quality when compared with the natural substance) , do you suppose the glands will go on working for nothing when the fruits of their labours are despised? ”

“ Sometimes when the same people are making a longish stay in the house, they draw lots to decide who shall go in with whom by way of variety instead of having always the same partner. Pieces of paper are numbered, two sets alike, and drawn just before dinner, the guests then pairing off according to their numbers, so that a woman or girl with no particular position may find herself in the place of honour at the table, but even so it would be extremely bad taste in her to leave the dining-room first. ”

“ You are shown into an apartment—very likely a big hall used in the day as a drawing-room—where you find perhaps several, perhaps only one or two, people, and the mistress of the house may ask whether you would like to see your room at once, or, if it is near tea-time, if you will stay and have a cup first? ”

“ For drawings of any size suitable for the doors of cabinets or rooms, plaques to insert in oak dadoes, etc. (and it is in these we shall get our finest effects) , the little machines heated by spirits of wine and other mediums are not of much use. It is, in fact, like using the smallest sable brushes for fresco painting. For my own work I mainly use wood-carving tools. The broadest chisels and gouges are the best, and the thicker the steel the better the tool, as it retains the heat for a longer period. ”

“ Just call to mind the fact that there is no real reason why you should feel "all anyhow" because you are in a strange house among strangers, and try to be natural in manner and pleasant to everybody.
One thing very necessary to cultivate when on a visit is the habit of punctuality. In London, where people come long distances, with the chance of a "block," or finding the street up, or some other obstacle to progress, a liberal margin is allowed as to time, and dinner at a quarter to eight means eight. ”

“ In men, age is a cause of baldness, and there is no reason to think that this cause acts less powerfully in the fair sex. Absolute baldness is not common in women, but their hair gets thinner and shorter after they have passed the meridian.
The fashion of tying the hair with a ribbon or fillet will cause the hair to fall out by compressing it and therefore interfering with its nutrition. If you remove the fillet occasionally, it will do no harm to the hair. Curling the fringe with hot tongs is a very common cause of bald foreheads. ”

“ Of its cause nothing is known. It is very common in girls when about fifteen years old, but it may occur at any age. The hair always grows again on the bald places, but it may not do so for a year or more. Painting the bald spot with a tincture of iodine is as good as anything, but it is Nature, and not drugs, that cures the affection.
The colour of the hair is extremely variable, and not uncommonly it changes from one colour to another in a very short time. The hair, like every other coloured organ in the body, obtains its colour from the iron in the blood. ”

“ No pharmacopœia is more comprehensive than the Chinese, and no English physician can surpass the Chinese in the easy confidence with which he will diagnose symptoms that he does not understand. The Chinese physician who witnesses the unfortunate effect of placing a drug of which he knows little into a body of which he knows less, is not much put out: he retires sententiously observing, "there is medicine for sickness, but none for fate." "Medicine," says a Chinese proverb, "cures the man who is fated not to die." ”

“ It is often a great consolation to a girl who has but a plain face to possess a fine head of hair. One can understand how annoyed she must feel when her hair starts combing out in handfuls, and she sees her one good possession getting less and less every day.
There are very many causes why the hair should comb out, and as it is absolutely necessary to know which cause is at work before attempting to cure it, we will discuss briefly the chief causes that are common. ”

“ Only one thing can be worse, and that is the strumming on our neighbour's piano. Next door noises are a source of much ill-temper and even of ill-health to those whose nerves are strained to tension-point, and in these days of high pressure, this is one of our most serious troubles. The minor annoyances of our neighbour's washing and our neighbour's cooking are as nothing compared to these, and we must consider ourselves fortunate if we have quiet people next door. Better still if they are godly people who recognise the divine duty of a neighbour. ”

“ In conclusion, I may say that burnt wood drawing to be properly done requires both time and thought, it being a much more satisfactory result to produce one fine specimen by a month's labour than several odds and ends, which can only be compared with the daubs so often exhibited in shops as "painted by hand." ”

“ Bryce had driven over from Folkestone to Sandgate, and had seen General Moore and Jack, and had inspected the preparations there made for a due welcome to Napoleon, when he should choose to make his appearance on British shores.
"And do but think, Molly," wrote Polly, "General Moore's dear old mother is down now at Sandgate, where she and her daughter have come to see again the General. For if Napoleon comes—and some say he will, and some say he will not—there must surely be hard fighting, and what that may mean none can tell beforehand. ”

“ A great help in this direction is to remind ourselves that we are also somebody's neighbour, and, no doubt, they have faults to find with us.
Still, there is no denying that whatever are our faults, those of our neighbour are very aggravating. What can be more intolerable than the barking and yelping of our neighbour's dog, the crowing of our neighbour's cock, the creaking of his rusty gate, and the crying and even screaming of his children? ”

“ Pay great attention to your digestion by observing all the rules laid down in the articles above mentioned. Take a walk regularly every day. As regards drugs, you must guard carefully against constipation, which is the chief cause of anæmia. A teaspoonful of liquorice powder, or an aloes and nux vomica pill, may be taken occasionally for this purpose. Tonics are the greatest bane of modern medicine, and you will do well to fight shy of them altogether. Iron, taken as a blood-former, but not as a tonic, is invaluable for anæmia. ”

“ When you come down to breakfast you need not go round and shake hands with everybody. Speak to the lady of the house and anybody you know close by, and a few little bows and smiles will do the rest. Be careful in going to or from the dining-room to wait your turn, and not walk out before those who ought to precede you. ”

“ We are not all geniuses in the talking line, but we are bound to take our share, so far as in us lies, in contributing to brightness and cheerfulness at table; only, of course, young girls are not expected to bring themselves prominently forward in that way, and young or old it should not be forgotten that a "voice soft, gentle and low, is an excellent thing in woman," and that a shrill laugh, or an exclamation so highly pitched that it pierces through the ordinary hum of sound, is anything but agreeable or attractive. ”

“ A matter of importance when visiting is to try never to be in the way when you are not wanted, and never out of it when you are wanted. Do not, for example, sit down and make an unrequired third in a conversation carried on between two people who are evidently quite content with each other's society, for they will only wish you anywhere, and, unless you have the constitution of a rhinoceros, the freezing atmosphere will soon bring to your mind a certain proverb which says that "Two's company, but three's none." ”

“ Should you happen to go down to dinner with the master of the house, it is as well to let your hostess have a chance of catching your eye to give the signal when she wishes to leave the table, but never on any account fall into the mistake which I once heard was made by a woman who ought to have known better. ”

“ To those who live in the heart of the country—in the midst of all its delights and, above all, of its peace—this may not sound much to charm the gaze; but here, in the rush of the unending roar night and day, to find a comparative stillness is refreshing beyond everything. ”