of her breast; And wisdom deep his guerdon was, And wondrous things he knew; Yet from each vanquish’d mystery Some harder marvel grew! No pause! no respite! no sure ground, To stay the spirit’s quest! In all around not one thing found So good as to be “best;” Not even love proved quite divine; Therefore his search did cease, p. 48Lord of all gifts that life can give Save the one sweet gift—Peace! p. 48 Then came it!—crown, sword, wreath—each lay, An unregarded thing! The funeral sheet from head to feet, Was royal robe to that king! And strange!—Love, learning, statecraft, sway, Look’d always on before, But those pale, happy, lips of clay, Lack’d nothing!—nothing more! p. 49GOSSIP. p. 49 I FEEL impelled to say a word, and it shall be but a word—and so more patiently endured—in defence of that much abused, much maligned thing—gossipry. Johnson, among many other designations, gives for “gossipred,” “spiritual affinity;” a very good definition, and the one I shall adopt; that is, sympathy, the need to give and to receive it; and I must say I know few things more charming than this sympathy in small things, this gossipry between kindly hearts and well filled heads. That light pouring out the thoughts and feelings and observations of the passing hour, which, while it commences with the external, is sure to touch, ever and anon, those deeper springs of thought, and feeling, and action, from which well up pleasant memories, apt thoughts, and pertinent reflections. FEEL Poring over old letters and papers which chanced recently to come into my hands, I came upon an old leaf of yellow paper and faded ink, which caught my attention; it appeared to be either a scrap of an old diary, or of a letter; it seemed to me somewhat germane to our present subject, and being venerable from its antiquity, I venture to quote it. Its date is too indistinct to be sure of, but it seems to be 1700 and something. Thus it runs:—“My husband was bidden to dinner yesterday to our Rector’s, I with him; my husband was pleased thereat, because there was, he said, to be there a man of parts, from London; so I laid out my husband’s best coat and long p. 50flowered waistcoat, and his kerseys and silk stockings, which he did not often wear, for I desired him to be seemly in his attire, that he might do fitting honour to our Rector; I was a little flustered at first with the notion of this great man;
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