hat we are continually rebuked
and yet strengthened for a fresh endeavour.

*****

'There are some pains,' said he, 'too acute for consolation, or I would
bring them to my kind consoler.'

*****

But there are duties which come before gratitude and offences which
justly divide friends, far more acquaintances.

*****

Life, though largely, is not entirely carried on by literature. We
are subject to physical passions and contortions; the voice breaks and
changes, and speaks by unconscious and winning inflections; we have
legible countenances, like an open book; things that cannot be said look
eloquently through the eyes; and the soul, not locked into the body as a
dungeon, dwells ever on the threshold with appealing signals. Groans
and tears, looks and gestures, a flush or a paleness, are often the most
clear reporters of the heart, and speak more directly to the hearts of
others.

*****

We are different with different friends; yet if we look closely we shall
find that every such relation reposes on some particular apotheosis of
oneself; with each friend, although we could not distinguish it in words
from any other, we have at least one special reputation to preserve: and
it is thus that we run, when mortified, to our friend or the woman that
we love, not to hear ourselves called better, but to be better men in
point of fact. We seek this society to flatter ourselves with our own
good conduct. And hence any falsehood in the relation, any incomplete or
perverted understanding, will spoil even the pleasure of these visits.

But it follows that since they are neither of them so good as the other
hopes, and each is, in a very honest manner, playing a part above his
powers, such an intercourse must often be disappointing to both.

*****

It is the mark of a modest man to accept his friendly circle ready-made
from the hands of opportunity; and that was the lawyer's way. His
friends were those of his own blood, or those whom he had known the
longest; his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied
no aptness in the object.

*****

Of those who are to act influentially on their fellows, we should expect
always something large and public in their way of life, something more
or less urbane and comprehensive in their sentiment for others. We
should not expect to see them spend their sympathy in idyls, however
beautiful. We should not seek them among those who, if they have but a
wife to their boso