'er ice the rapid skater flies,
With sport above and death below;
Where mischief lurks in gay disguise,
Thus lightly touch and quickly go.'

"He was, however, most exceedingly enraged when he knew that in the
course of the season I had asked half a dozen acquaintance to do the
same thing; and said, it was a piece of treachery, and done to make
every body else look little when compared to my favourite friends the
_Pepyses_, whose translations were unquestionably the best."[1]

[Footnote 1: By Sir Lucas:

"O'er the ice, as o'er pleasure, you lightly should glide,
Both have gulphs which their flattering surfaces hide."

By Sir William:

"Swift o'er the level how the skaiters slide,
And skim the glitt'ring surface as they go:
Thus o'er life's specious pleasures lightly glide,
But pause not, press not on the gulph below."]

Madame D'Arblay's Diary describes the outward and visible state of
things at Brighton. "Thraliana" lays bare the internal history, the
struggles of the understanding and the heart:

"At Brighthelmstone, whither I went when I left Streatham, 7th
October 1782, I heard this comical epigram about the Irish
Volunteers:

"'There's not one of us all, my brave boys, but would rather
Do ought than offend great King George our good father;
But our country, you know, my dear lads, is our _mother_,
And that is a much surer side than the other.'"

"I had looked ill, or perhaps appeared to feel so much, that my
eldest daughter would, out of tenderness perhaps, force me to an
explanation. I could, however, have evaded it if I would; but my
heart was bursting, and partly from instinctive desire of unloading
it--partly, I hope, from principle, too--I called her into my room
and fairly told her the truth; told her the strength of my passion
for Piozzi, the impracticability of my living without him, the
opinion I had of his merit, and the resolution I had taken to marry
him. Of all this she could not have been ignorant before. I confessed
my attachment to him and her together with many tears and agonies one
day at Streatham; told them both that I wished I had two hearts for
their sakes, but having only one I would break it between them, and
give them each _ciascheduno la meta!_ After that conversation she
consented to go abroad with me, and even appointed the place (Lyons),
to which Piozzi meant to follow us. He and she talked long together
on the subject; yet her never mentioning