290 ISLES or SUMMEE. 



The eye of such an observer is not blinded, nor his judgment 

 warped, by the subtle influences that envelope, like aromatic 

 odors, the festive board, and infect the air where invited guests 

 assemble to add new and stronger ties to friendships that are not 

 always sincere, disinterested and genuine. 



Small cities exhibit in miniature the different phases of human 

 life which exist in large ones. Their inhabitants are never en- 

 tirely homogeneous. The integral parts are radically unlike, 

 and persistently refuse to assimilate. Great natural formative 

 and organizing laws, subtle but powerful, are ever in operation, 

 crystalizing and stratifying the elements of which society is com- 

 posed. Brains and blood, rank and fortune, that never would 

 be felt or known in a great metropolis, ruffle and disturb with 

 their little eddies the insipid and otherwise stagnant waters of 

 a small town. 



However much we may admire the happy and contented spirit 

 of the grim, hard-headed, stoic Greek philosopher of the tub, 

 who wanted nothing of the dispenser of royal patronage but such 

 a change of position as would secure the full benefit of the light 

 and heat of an unclouded sun, it cannot with truth be denied 

 that the love of rank, social position, office and high sounding 

 titles is with most persons inborn and inbred. It is in the warp 

 and woof of their souls. Nor can that be said to be an " infirm- 

 ity of noble minds," which an all- wise Creator has made a part 

 of their nature. Looking a little below the surface, we see and 

 learn that these seemingly light and trivial objects of desire are 

 great impelling forces, constantly stimulating and urging their 

 possessors upward and onward. Gewgaws and trinkets are not 

 to be ignored, belittled or despised, if, as objects of human de- 

 sire, constantly coveted and lal^ored for, they furnish healthful 

 stimulus to indolence, and cause valuable additions to be made 

 to man's stores of material and intellectual wealth. 



