22 



OUR COLUMNS. 



June 20, 1891. 



realism of Robinson Crusoe paled before tliem. Another work of the adventurous class 

 was Tivo Years be/ore the Mast. What on earth do boj^s read now-a-days if they do not 

 read that? (I thought my friend the compiler rather winced at this.) And Gulliver's 

 Travels, and The Ingolclsby Legends, and Don Quixote, and To7n Cringle's Log with The 

 Quenching of the Torch, how fascinating they were ! You never read Salathiel the 

 Immortal, did you now, any of you younger ones? 



" Oh, ladies and gentlemen," I cried, for I saw that their numbers had been seriously 

 dwindling all this time, " is there nothing that will excite your compassion ? Did I not 

 read Butler's Analogy, and Butler's Hudibras, and Buckland's Curiosities of Natural 

 History, and Southey's Lives, and Lardner's Cookery, and Revelations of Russia, and 

 Chamber's Cyclopaedia of English Literature, and Buft'on's Natural History, and Layard's 

 Nineveh, and llie Orbs of Heaven, and Hogg's Vegetable Kingdom, and TJie Wonders of 

 the Microscojje, and /s*«5 and his Friends, and Macaulay's Essays, and Maria Edgeworth's 

 Irish Bulls, and The School for Scandal, and Christopher North, and David Cop " 



Alas ! they were all gone, long before my list was ended, men and women, all gone, 

 even he of the motley suit, and I was left alone ! 



" Farewell, ladies and gentlemen," said I, with as slight a tone of disappointment as 

 I could assume. " Farewell ! You seem willing enough to discontinue the subject, 

 though I do not accuse you for a moment of such inconstancy as mine. But if you would 

 not have me wander at my will among your writings, nor seek such entertainment there 

 as I have laid before you, remember, on the other part, that of making of books there is 

 no end, and that much study is a weariness of the flesh. Aye, what care I ? The flowers 

 are here, and the gleaming river, and the breaking wave. Are Life and Nature nothing 

 worth ? Nay, I have loved you much, some of you very much, in my dilettante way. 

 But part we here, if part we must, you for the quiet lea, I for the rolling billow. And 

 yet 'tis possible, I trow, that the thought of some of you may one day prove a solace to 

 me when the storm is highest." ^' 



Whateveh else may be learnt in the Natural History Section of our Society, the 

 natural history of that useful animal, Canis familiaris, may behest studied in the vestibule 

 of the Library, where 



' ' Both puppy, mongrel, whelp, and hound, 

 ' ' And curs of low degree ' ' 



do congregate. As warm friends of " the friend of man," we think the Council should 

 supply water troughs and biscuits to render the often very protracted waiting of the dogs 

 more tolerable to them. Additional door-mats should be provided for the poor little pets 

 who are fastened to the umbrella-stand or tied to the hand-rail of the staircase, because 

 the large mat in front of the folding doors is out of their reach, and, indeed, is generally 

 monopolized by bigger dogs. 



Mr. Copner's new book, " Hints on Memory," is so useful and suggestive that no one 

 should forget to read it. The reasons alleged for the statement that men's powers of 

 memory have decreased as their facilities for acquiring knowledge from books, newspapers, 

 &c., have increased may be duly considered by the members of our Society. In a future 

 edition, the concluding chapter, entitled " Some Mnemonical Dodges," should be greatly 

 extended, as from the original examples provided by the author, it is evident he is an 

 adept in composing mnemonics, relating to chronology, history, and other subjects, which 

 would be very helpful to students young and old. 



