All love me dearly at once .-- Charming idea of life, but too high-colored for the reality.

I have outgrown all this; my tastes have become exceedingly primitive,--almost, perhaps, ascetic.

We carry happiness into our condition, but must not hope to find it there.

I think you will be willing to hear some lines which embody the subdued and limited desires of my maturity.
CONTENTMENT.
"Man wants but little here below." Little I ask, my wants are few; I only wish a hut of stone, (A VERY PLAIN brown stone will do,) That I may call my own;-- And close at hand is such a one, In yonder street that fronts the sun.
Plain food is quite enough for me; Three courses are as good as ten;-- If Nature can subsist on three, Thank heaven for three.

Amen! I always thought cold victual nice;-- My CHOICE would be vanilla-ice.
I care not much for gold or land;-- Give me a mortgage here and there,-- Some good bank-stock,--some note of hand, Or trifling railroad share;-- I only ask that Fortune send A LITTLE more than I shall spend.
Honors are silly toys, I know, And titles are but empty names;-- I would, PERHAPS, be Plenipo,-- But only near St.James;-- I'm very sure I should not care To fill our Gubernator's chair.
Jewels are baubles; 'tis a sin To care for such unfruitful things;-- One good-sized diamond in a pin,-- Some, NOT SO LARGE, in rings,-- A ruby and a pearl, or so, Will do for me;--I laugh at show.
My dame should dress in cheap attire; (Good, heavy silks are never dear;)-- I own perhaps I MIGHT desire Some shawls of true cashmere,-- Some marrowy crapes of China silk, Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk.
I would not have the horse I drive So fast that folks must stop and stare An easy gait--two, forty-five-- Suits me; I do not care;-- Perhaps, for just a SINGLE SPURT, Some seconds less would do no hurt.
Of pictures, I should like to own Titians and Raphaels three or four,-- I love so much their style and tone,-- One Turner, and no more,-- (A landscape,--foreground golden dirt The sunshine painted with a squirt.) Of books but few,--some fifty score For daily use, and bound for wear; The rest upon an upper floor;-- Some LITTLE luxury THERE Of red morocco's gilded gleam, And vellum rich as country cream.
Busts, cameos, gems,--such things as these, Which others often show for pride, _I_ value for their power to please, And selfish churls deride;-- ONE Stradivarius, I confess, TWO Meerschaums, I would fain possess.
Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn, Nor ape the glittering upstart fool;-- Shall not carved tables serve my turn, But ALL must be of buhl?
Give grasping pomp its double share,-- I ask but ONE recumbent chair.
Thus humble let me live and die, Nor long for Midas' golden touch, If Heaven more generous gifts deny, I shall not miss them MUCH,-- Too grateful for the blessing lent Of simple tastes and mind content! MY LAST WALK WITH THE SCHOOLMISTRESS.
(A Parenthesis.) I can't say just how many walks she and I had taken together before this one.