CHAPTER XVI. 



THE HEART'S-EASE. 



There are some objects that all the world is agreed 

 in admiring, or professing to admire. Those who 

 have taste and feeling, experience exquisite delight 

 in surveying such objects ; and people who have 

 neither, would not expose their deficiency by ac- 

 knowledging that these things have no charm for 

 them. Thus, an April sky, with its flitting clouds, 

 and glancing sunbeams, and evanescent rainbow, is 

 by common consent, most lovely. Some, to be sure, 

 there are, who consider all the enjoyment derivable 

 from the contemplation, to be a very poor equiva- 

 lent for the spoiling of a ribband, or the splashing 

 of a gown ; but they rarely venture to proclaim 

 their dissent from the general agreement. This 

 being the case, all descriptive, all sentimental 

 writers, and indeed all who handle any other than 

 the driest matter-of-fact subjects, are to be found 

 tendering their quota of admiration, in every vari- 

 ety of style and phrase. To elicit any thing new r , 

 on such a hackneyed topic, is, perhaps impossible : 

 but as I do not aim at originality — merely wishing 



