XVII. 

 A 'MATUTINAL HOUE,' 



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 concep- 

 tion 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 travellers visit 

 the Continental world. Its sudden smiles and sud- 

 den 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 all her moods. She is the very April among 

 nations. The Barometer, a tolerably steady-going guide 



