290 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
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 labored for, they furnish healthful 
stimulus to indolence, and cause valuable additions to be made 
to man’s stores of material and intellectual wealth. 
