Essays on Life 



them enough water, or left the door of her 

 fern-case open when she was cooking her 

 dinner at the gas stove, or kept them too near 

 the paraffin oil, or other like folly ; and as for 

 her temper, see what the gazelles did ; as long 

 as they did not know her " well," they could 

 just manage to exist, but when they got 

 to understand her real character, one after 

 another felt that death was the only course 

 open to it, and accordingly died rather than 

 live with such a mistress. True, the young 

 lady herself said the gazelles loved her ; but 

 disagreeable people are apt to think them- 

 selves amiable, and in view of the course 

 invariably taken by the gazelles themselves 

 any one accustomed to weigh evidence will 

 hold that she was probably mistaken. 



I must, however, return to Frost's " Lives 

 of Eminent Christians." I will leave none of 

 the ambiguity about my words in which 

 Moore and Wordsworth seem to have de- 

 lighted. I am very sorry the book is gone, 

 and know not where to turn for its successor. 

 Till I have found a substitute I can write no 

 more, and I do not know how to find even 



