270 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VI. 



ing the hearts of the much enduring, dear sharers of our little 

 fireside circle. 



" We shall compare plans, and cheer on each other in our 

 widely differing pursuits when we meet face to face, which I 

 hope will be soon after that most appropriate and beloved of 

 the days of the year, the 1st of April. . . . 



" This is a pretty story about - - ; young man, go on as you 

 are doing, and you'll have much to answer for. I remember 

 once being told by a stage-struck haver el, of a certain young 

 actor, yet innocent of public performance, who, even in plain 

 clothes, and in a room, could make the looker-on weep with 

 emotion. What, then, might be expected when he trod the 

 stage in shammy (not shabby) leather boots, with tin hel- 

 met, or tinsel crown and corked mustachios ? Surely nothing 

 less than that the pit would require Mackintoshes and umbrellas 

 to ward off the briny torrents from the boxes and galleries. 

 Take warning ; if you, in plain clothes, and in a quiet domestic 

 parlour, have made such an auger hole through a young lady's 

 chief organ of circulation, what will occur when your reverence 

 is mounted in the pulpit ? The high, white forehead, the long 

 brown hair, the dark eye, with its Edward Irving glance to- 

 wards the sky (or, in default of that, at the ventilator), the silk 

 gown, the white bands, the cambric handkerchief! All this 

 may only make the little hearts go pit-a-pat, but when the 

 ' Chrysostom' is opened, and the floods pour forth, the thunder 

 rolls of eloquence, the platoon volleys of rarely-imagined illus- 

 trations, the knock-down, smiting blows (prompted by the 

 4 absolute' and 'righteous indignation'), the imagination reels 

 drunken, and cannot attempt to calculate the number of coro- 

 ner's inquests which next week's paper will reveal. 



" Seriously speaking, I acquit you of blame, of all blame ; 

 these sentimental, pseudo-sesthetical young ladies are the most 

 foolish and unprofitable of nature's productions. They are always 

 in mischief, and hauling other people into it ; a restless, anoma- 

 lous, and most troublesome species of bipeds." 



"March 20, 1842. 



" MY DEAR DANIEL, I received your kind and welcome letter 



