ersons
asking one another if they would go to see _Mr. H----,_ and answering
that they would certainly; but before night the gaiety, not of the
author, but of his friends and the town was eclipsed, for thou were
damned! Hadst thou been anonymous thou haply mightst have lived. But
thou didst come to an untimely end for thy tricks, and for want of a
better name to pass them off!

In this manner we go back to the critical minutes on which the turn of
our fate, or that of any one else in whom we are interested; depended;
try them over again with new knowledge and sharpened sensibility; and
thus think to alter what is irrevocable, and ease for a moment the pang
of lasting regret. So in a game at rackets(3) (to compare small things
with great), I think if at such a point I had followed up my success,
if I had not been too secure or over-anxious in another part, if I had
played for such an opening--in short, if I had done anything but what I
did and what has proved unfortunate in the result, the chances were all
in my favour. But it is merely because I do not know what would have
happened in the other case that I interpret it so readily to my own
advantage. I have sometimes lain awake a whole night, trying to serve
out the last ball of an interesting game in a particular corner of
the court, which I had missed from a nervous feeling. Rackets (I might
observe, for the sake of the uninformed reader) is, like any other
athletic game, very much a thing of skill and practice; but it is also
a thing of opinion, 'subject to all the skyey influences.' If you think
you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory. If you hesitate
in striking at the ball, it is ten to one but you miss it. If you are
apprehensive of committing some particular error (such as striking the
ball _foul_) you will be nearly sure to do it. While thinking of that
which you are so earnestly bent upon avoiding, your hand mechanically
follows the strongest idea, and obeys the imagination rather than the
intention of the striker. A run of luck is a forerunner of success,
and courage is as much wanted as skill. No one is, however, free from
nervous sensations at times. A good player may not be able to strike a
single stroke if another comes into the court that he has a particular
dread of; and it frequently so happens that a player cannot beat
another, even though he can give half the game to an equal player,
because he has some associations of jealousy or per