There was not a single mistake from beginning to end in the information with which I supplied him; no hitch occurred anywhere; yet now he never speaks to me.
Therefore it is that I have come to restrain my passion for the giving of information; therefore it is that nothing in the nature of practical instruction will be found, if I can help it, within these pages.
There will be no description of towns, no historical reminiscences, no architecture, no morals.
I once asked an intelligent foreigner what he thought of London.
He said: "It is a very big town." I said: "What struck you most about it ?" He replied: "The people." I said: "Compared with other towns--Paris, Rome, Berlin,--what did you think of it ?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"It is bigger," he said; "what more can one say ?" One anthill is very much like another.

So many avenues, wide or narrow, where the little creatures swarm in strange confusion; these bustling by, important; these halting to pow-wow with one another.

These struggling with big burdens; those but basking in the sun.

So many granaries stored with food; so many cells where the little things sleep, and eat, and love; the corner where lie their little white bones.