under the beneficent influence of
ether? at which my dear S---- C---- expresses some anxiety touching the
authority of the Book of Genesis, which she thinks may be impaired if
women continue, by means of ether, to escape from the special curse
pronounced against them for their share in the original sin.

For my part I am not afraid that the worst part of the curse will not
abide upon us, in spite of ether; the woman's desire will still be to
her husband, who, consequently, will still rule over her. For these
(curses or not, as people may consider them), I fear no palliating ether
will be found; and till men are more righteous than they are, all
creatures subject to them will be liable to suffer misery of one sort or
another....

I wonder if I have ever spoken to you of Lady Morley--a kind-hearted,
clever woman (who, by the bye, always calls men "the softer sex"), a
great friend of Sydney Smith's, whom I have known a good deal in
society, and who came to see me just before I left town. In speaking of
poor Lady Dacre, and the difficulty she found in accepting her late
bereavement, Lady Morley said, "I think people should be very grateful
whose misfortunes fall upon them in old age rather than in youth:
they're all the nearer having done with them." There was some whimsical
paradox in this, but some truth too. An habitual saying of hers (not
serious, of course, but which she applies to everything she hears) is:
"There's nothing new, nothing true, and nothing signifies." The last
time I dined at Lady Grey's a discussion arose between Lady Morley,
myself, and some of the other guests, as to how much or how little truth
it was _right_ to speak in our usual intercourse with people. I
maintained that one was bound to speak the whole truth; so did my
friend, Lady G----; Lady F---- said, "Toute verite n'est pas bonne a
dire;" and Lady Morley told the following story: "I sat by Rogers at
dinner the other day (the poet of memory was losing his, and getting to
repeat the same story twice over without being aware that he did so),
and he told me a very good story, which, however, before long, he began
to repeat all over again; something, however, suggesting to him the idea
that he was doing so, he stopped suddenly, and said, 'I've told you this
before, haven't I?' And he had, not a quarter of an hour before. Now,
ladies, what would you have said? and what do you think I said? 'Oh
yes,' said I, 'to be sure: you were beginning to tell