n books of travel the only truthful or
vivid descriptions are of sufferings of all kinds, even down to
inferior luncheons and lost hair brushes. Their joys they sketch with
an indifferent skill, like HEINE'S monk, who made rather a poor
description of Heaven, but was "gifted in Hell," which he depicted
with dreadful vigor.

I find it a great aid to recall what I can of bygone beautiful
associations, and then sleep on them with a resolve that they shall
recur in complete condition. He who will thus resolutely clean up his
past life and clear away from it all sorrow _as well as he can_, and
refurnish it with beautiful memories, or make it better, _coute que
coute_, will do himself more good than many a doleful moral adviser
ever dreamed of. This is what I mean by _self-fascination_--the
making, as it were, by magic art, one's own past and self more
charming than we ever deemed it possible to be. We thus fascinate
ourselves. Those who believe that everything which is bygone has gone
to the devil are in a wretched error. The future is based on the
past--yes, made from it, and that which _was_ never dies, but returns
to bless or grieve. We mostly wrong our past bitterly, and bitterly
does it revenge itself. But it is like the lion of ANDROCLES, it
remembers those who treat it kindly. "And lo! when ANDROCLES was
thrown to the lion to be devoured, the beast lay down at his feet, and
licked his hands." Yes, we have all our lions!

_To master difficult meanings_. It has often befallen me, when I was
at the University, or later when studying law, to exert my mind to
grasp, and all in vain, some problem in mathematics or a puzzling
legal question, or even to remember some refractory word in a foreign
language which would _not_ remain in the memory. After a certain
amount of effort in many of these cases, further exertion is
injurious, the mind or receptive power seems to be seized--as if
nauseated--with spasmodic rejections. In such a case pass the question
by, but on going to bed, think it over and _will_ to understand it on
the morrow. It will often suffice to merely desire that it shall recur
in more intelligible form--in which case, _nota bene_--if let alone it
will obey. This is as if we had a call to make tomorrow, when, as we
know, the memory will come at its right time of itself, especially if
we employ Forethought or special pressure.

When I reflect on what I once endured from this cause, and how greatly
it could hav