64: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND 



and it somewhat re-acted on us. Yet, after that the 

 Orchid fever did not abate at once. Another amateur 

 (not of our locality) stepped on his track for a few 

 years then collapsed as any undertaking conducted too 

 recklessly will come to sooner or later. 



This digression reminds me that I have not con- 

 cluded my description of the different tastes of our 

 conclullists for different kinds of Orchids. I have not 

 given entirely the enumeration of what I liked or did 

 not. After having said that I liked good company 

 above all I ought to have said that I was a sort oipan- 

 tophile (" lover of every thing," ) with many exceptions 

 such as ill-treatment, hypocrisy, counterfeit money, 

 foul language, the smell of rank tobacco, the polemics 

 of politicians who are to-day protectionist when they 

 have goods for sale at home inferior to foreign goods, 

 or free traders , when they have to import what they 

 have not or cannot produce. I suppose you have a 

 *" quantum sufficit " of what I like and do not. Now 

 you know a little about our peculiarities. To complete 

 your knowledge, I must (notwithstanding my modesty) 

 tell you that I was somebody in that association of good 

 fellows. I was a sort of a sub-honorary^m'tor, a connect- 

 ing link between the dissident parties when there were 



(* Quantum sufficit plenty enough, too much.) 



