ook at Mrs --, one of the best women in the world; an
excellent wife and mother, and at most times as lady-like as you would
wish to see: but look at her now--you see she's quite drunk, poor thing;
what a pity, isn't it, that she cannot get over her unfortunate
propensity; but I am afeard it's no use. I've reasoned with her. It's
a sad pity, and a great drawback to my happiness. Well, hang sorrow--it
killed a cat. Don't notice what I've told you, and pass the bottle."

I believe that the English are better acquainted with geography than
other nations. I have been astonished at the ignorance on this point I
have found in foreigners who otherwise were clever and well-informed men
and women. When the Marquis de Claremont Tonnere was appointed to the
office of Minister of the Marine and Colonies, upon the restoration of
the Bourbons, a friend of mine had an audience with him, and it was not
until a very angry discussion, and a reference to the map, that he could
persuade the minister that Martinique was an _island_. However, in this
instance we had nearly as great an error committed in our own Colonial
office, which imagined that the Dutch settlement of Demerara upon the
coast of South America, and which had fallen into our hands, _was_ an
island; indeed, in the official papers it was spoken of as such. A
little before the French Revolution, a princess who lived in Normandy
determined upon a visit to her relations in Paris; and having a sister
married to a Polish nobleman, she determined to take Poland in her way.
To her astonishment, instead of a day to two, her voyage was not
completed under four months.

I have heard it often asserted, that you should not build your house so
as to look at a fine prospect out of your windows, but so as to walk to
view it at a short distance. This may be true with the finest prospects
in other countries, but not so in Switzerland, where the view never
palls upon the eye, from the constant changing which occurs in the
tinting of the landscape. You may look upon the Lake of Geneva every
day, and at no one day, or even portion of the day, is the effect the
same. The mountains of Savoy are there, and change not their position:
neither does the Lake; but at one time the mountains will appear ten
miles nearer to you than they will at another. The changing arising
from refraction and reflection is wonderful. Never did I witness
anything finer than the Lake of Geneva at the setting of