4i8 MORE POT-POURRI 



But comprehends us better far than do 



The wisest, keenest, cleverest of you. 



The street-boy understands, upon my life, 



The Lord High Chanc'llor, better than his wife. 



So, when a woman turns her wits again, 



And hopes to modify the ways of men, 



I look to see, when faith and practice meet, 



Her tears bedew the pathway to defeat. 



Samuel Johnson, who married a widow twenty years, 

 older than himself, and quarrelled with her on his way to 

 church, as he said he was not to be made the slave of 

 caprice, and was resolved to begin as he meant to end, 

 also said in after-life : ' Praise from a wife comes home 

 to a man's heart/ I am sure this is equally the case 

 with the wife. I have known many happy couples, but 

 never one that did not beam with joy at real praise and 

 appreciation from husband to wife, or wife to husband. Of 

 course, however, all flattery must be given with discretion. 



Every girl after marriage should expect to be not 

 understood, and to remember this is part of the mysterious 

 scheme of life which probably on the whole tends to 

 good ; at any rate, it sharpens the interest of life. How 

 far do we not go to find ' an undiscovered country ' ? 

 Besides, if it is a trial it is lightened by remembering it is 

 the same for all. Lucas Malet seems to think it is 

 universal : 



' Do two human beings, especially of the opposite sex, 

 ever fully understand one another ? Have any two ever 

 done so, since the world began ? History and personal 

 observation alike answer in the negative, I fear ; for, alas ! 

 the finest and liveliest imagination stops short of complete 

 comprehension of the thoughts, aims, predilections of even 

 the nearest and best loved. In truth, is not each one of us 

 after all under sentence of something very like perpetual 

 solitary confinement in the prison-house of our own 

 individuality ? ' 



