Adventures and EnthusiasmsGeorge H. Doran Company, 1920 - 317 pàgines There are certain qualities that we all claim. We are probably wrong, of course, but we deceive ourselves into believing that, short as we may fall in other ways, we really can do this or that superlatively well. "I'll say this for myself," we remark, with an approving glance in the mirror, "at any rate I'm a good listener"; or, "Whatever I may not be, I'm a good host." These are things that may be asserted of oneself, by oneself, without undue conceit. "I pride myself on being a wit," a man may not say; or "I am not ashamed of being the handsomest man in London;" but no one resents the tone of those other arrogations, even if their truth is denied. It is less common, although also unobjectionable, to hear people felicitate with themselves[Pg 14] on being good guests. Indeed, I have lately met two or three who quite impenitently asserted the reverse; and I believe that I am of their company. Trying very hard to be good I can never lose sight of the fact that my host's house is not mine. Fixed customs must be surrendered, lateness must become punctuality, cigarette ends must not burn the mantelpiece, one misses one's own China tea. The bathroom is too far and other people use it. There is no hook for the strop. In short, to be a really good guest and at ease under alien roofs it is necessary, I suspect, to have no home ties of one's own; certainly to have no very tyrannical habits. |
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Albert Memorial Andersen artist asked aunt beautiful better bowls Bunty called Charles Lamb charming cheerful child comic course Davy Jones Davy Jones's locker Doctor Johnson Drake dressed E. V. LUCAS Elegant Girl English eyes famous father ferryman gentleman give Golden Eagle guest hand Hans Andersen heard heart Herefordshire honour horse hostess humour Innocent's Progress"-Plate John Kyrle Kyrle Society lady late Laura Leech less live locker London look memory Miranda Hill Miss morning mother Nelson ness never night Nobby Octavia Hill old curiosity shop once one's passed perhaps person picture Plate play Plymouth Hoe poet policeman Polly pony poor remarkable remember replied Ross ships soldiers story Street sure tell theatre things thought tion to-day told verses woman wonderful words young
Passatges populars
Pàgina 64 - The waters compassed me about, even to the soul : the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains ; the earth with her bars was about me for ever : yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
Pàgina 69 - The Man of Ross," each lisping babe replies. Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread ! The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread : He feeds yon alms-house, neat, but void of state, Where Age and Want sit smiling at the gate ; Him portion'd maids, apprentic'd orphans blest, The young who labour, and the old who rest. Is any sick ? the Man of Ross relieves, Prescribes, attends, the medicine makes, and gives.
Pàgina 68 - Who hung with woods yon mountain's sultry brow? From the dry rock who bade the waters flow? Not to the skies in useless columns tost, Or in proud falls magnificently lost, But clear and artless, pouring through the plain Health to the sick and solace to the swain.
Pàgina 69 - P. Who builds a church to God, and not to Fame, Will never mark the marble with his name; Go, search it there, where to be born and die, Of rich and poor makes all the history; Enough, that virtue filled the space between; Proved, by the ends of being, to have been.
Pàgina 153 - It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock. It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.
Pàgina 68 - But clear and artless, pouring through the plain Health to the sick, and solace to the swain. Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows? Whose seats the weary traveller repose ? Who taught that Heav'n-directed spire to rise? " The Man of Ross," each lisping babe replies. Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread ! The Man of Ross...
Pàgina 69 - Thrice happy man ! enabled to pursue What all so wish, but want the power to do ! Oh say, what sums that generous hand supply ? What mines to swell that boundless charity ? P.
Pàgina 69 - Balk'd are the courts, and contest is no more: Despairing quacks with curses fled the place, And vile attorneys, now an useless race. B. Thrice happy man, enabled to pursue What all so wish, but want the power to do ! O say, what sums that generous hand supply ? What mines to swell that boundless charity'.
Pàgina 203 - In the drinking well, Which the plumber built her, Aunt Eliza fell — We must buy a filter.
Pàgina 28 - The more persons died in a play, the more interesting I thought it. At this time I wrote my first piece : it was nothing less than a tragedy, wherein, as a matter of course, everybody died. The subject of it I borrowed from an old song about Pyramus and Thisbe ; but I had increased the incidents through a hermit and his son, who both loved Thisbe, and who both killed themselves when she died. Many speeches of the hermit were passages from the Bible, taken out of the Little Catechism, especially from...