XVII. 



A "MATUTINAL HOUR." 



IT requires no small experience of life, to fully 

 realize the often heard and often repeated truth, 

 that "every thing goes by comparison." When the 

 philosopher tells us that we only know the true 

 value of a thing by the want of it, he merely 

 reasserts this fact. We judge only by the light of 

 contrast. A man who has lived all his life in 

 England has no adequate conception of the English 

 climate. Including with it that of Scotland and 

 Ireland, it stands alone in the world in that part 

 of it at least which most travelers visit the Con- 

 tinental world. Its sudden smiles and sudden tears 

 are something truly hysterical. Like some fair 

 maiden who weeps she knows not why then stops 

 and smiles a bit a fickle smile then falls to 

 weeping again ; there is no knowing when or where 

 or how, to be up to her moods. She is the very April 

 among nations. The Barometer, a tolerably steady- 

 going guide elsewhere, she turns into a perfect 



