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327  on them and talk them over for months afterwards. I submit that even a few choice gratifications thus carefully prized, add to a man's sense of happiness as much as double the number which are received when he is too weary to enjoy, or too hurried to recall them.

"Again, the permanent and indefeasible delights of the country seem somehow to be more indispensable to human beings than the high-strung exciting gratifications of the town. The proof of this fact is that while we can live at home all the year round, town mice, after eight or nine months' residence at longest, begin to hate their beloved city, and pine for the country. Even when they are in the full fling of the London season, it is instructive to notice the enthusiasm and sparkle wherewith thet discuss their projected tours a few weeks later among Swiss mountains, or up Norwegian fiords. Also it may be observed how of all the entertainments of the year the most popular are the flower-shows, and the afternoon garden-parties in certain private grounds. Even the wretched unmanly sport of Hurlingham has become fashionable, chiefly because it has brought men and women out of London for a day into the semblance of a country place. Had the gentlemen shot the poor pigeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields or Bloomsbury, the admiring spectators of their prowess would have been exceedingly few. Nay, it is enough to watch in any London drawing-room wherein may stand on one table a bouquet of the costliest hot-house flowers, and on the other a bowl of primroses in March, of hawthorn in May, and of purple heather in July, and see how every guest will sooner or later pay some little affectionate attention to the vase which brings the reminiscence of the fields, woods, and mountains, taking no notice at all of the gorgeous azaleas, and pelargoniums, and gardenias, and camellias in the rival nosegay. It is very well to boast of the 'perfection' and 'finish' of London life, but the 'perfection' fails to supply the first want of nature — fresh air — and the 'finish ' yet waits for a commencement in cheerful sunlight unobscured by smoke and fog, and a silence which shall not be marred all day and night by hideous, jarring, and distracting sounds. Who is there who would prefer to live in one of the Venetian palace chambers, gorgeously decorated and adorned with frescoes and marbles, and gilding and mirrors, but with a huge high wall, black, damp, and slimy, within two feet of the windows, shutting out the light of day and the air of heaven, rather than in a homely English drawing-room, furnished with nothing better than a few passable water-colour sketches and some chintz-covered chairs and sofas, but opening down wide on a sunny garden, with the acacia waving its blossoms over the emerald sward, and the children weaving daisy chains round the neck of the old colly, who lies beside them panting with the warmth of the weather and his own benevolence?

"Then as to the dulness of our country conversation, wherewith my distinguished friend the Town Mouse has rather impolitely taunted us. Is it because we take no particular interest in his gossip of the clubs that he thinks himself justified in pronouncing us stupid? Perhaps we also think him a trifle local (if we may not say provincial) in his choice of topics, and are of opinion that the harvest prospects of our country, and the relations of agricultural labour to capital, are subjects quite as worthy of attention as his petty and transitory cancans about articles in reviews, quarrels, scandals, and jests. East Indians returning to Europe after long absence are often amazed that nobody at home cares much to hear why Colonel Chutnee was sent from Curriepoor to Liverabad, or how it happened that Mrs. Cayenne broke off her engagement with old General Temperatesty. And in like manner perhaps a Londoner may be surprised without much reason that his intensely interesting 'latest intelligence' is rather thrown away upon us down in the shires. Let him enjoy a good fox-hunt in the morning, and then see if he does not like to talk it over after dinner! But the poor Town Mouse does not even know what that supreme rural pleasure may be, and all the charms and wonders of sport are a dead letter to him. Here at least is a point on which there can be no comparison between us, and till he can name some delight of the town equal to a walk over the moors in August, or the stubbles in September, or a good run with the hounds, I must be permitted to retain my preference for my 'hollow tree.'"

These, as we premised, are the obvious and salient advantages and disadvantages of town and country life respcclively observed and recognized by everybody who thinks on the subject. It is the purport of the present paper to pass beyond them to some of the more subtle 