I have often thought that he whom God hath gifted with a love of retirement possesses, as it were, an extra sense.

And among what our poet so eloquently calls 'the vast and noble scenes of Nature,' we find the balm for the wounds we have sustained among the 'pitiful shifts of policy;' for the attachment to solitude is the surest preservative from the ills of life: and I know not if the Romans ever instilled, under allegory, a sublimer truth than when they inculcated the belief that those inspired by Feronia, the goddess of woods and forests, could walk barefoot and uninjured over burning coals." At this part of our conference, the bell swinging hoarsely through the long avenues, and over the silent water, summoned us to the grand occupation of civilized life; we rose and walked slowly towards the house.
"Does not," said I, "this regular routine of petty occurrence, this periodical solemnity of trifles, weary and disgust you?
For my part, I almost long for the old days of knight-errantry, and would rather be knocked on the head by a giant, or carried through the air by a flying griffin, than live in this circle of dull regularities,--the brute at the mill." "You may live even in these days," answered St.John, "without too tame a regularity.

Women and politics furnish ample food for adventure, and you must not judge of all life by country life." "Nor of all conversation," said I, with a look which implied a compliment, "by the insipid idlers who fill our saloons.

Behold them now, gathered by the oriel window, yonder; precious distillers of talk,--sentinels of society with certain set phrases as watchwords, which they never exceed; sages, who follow Face's advice to Dapper,-- "'Hum thrice, and buzz as often.'".