of delicate relations between some of our number. I
told you how it would be. It did not require a prophet to foresee that
the saucy intruder who, as Mr. Willis wrote, and the dear dead girls
used to sing, in our young days,

"Taketh every form of air,
And every shape of earth,
And comes unbidden everywhere,
Like thought's mysterious birth,"

would pop his little curly head up between one or more pairs of Teacups.
If you will stop these questions, then, I will go on with my reports of
what was said and done at our meetings over the teacups.

Of all things beautiful in this fair world, there is nothing so
enchanting to look upon, to dream about, as the first opening of the
flower of young love. How closely the calyx has hidden the glowing
leaves in its quiet green mantle! Side by side, two buds have been
tossing jauntily in the breeze, often brought very near to each
other, sometimes touching for a moment, with a secret thrill in their
close-folded heart-leaves, it may be, but still the cool green sepals
shutting tight over the burning secret within. All at once a morning ray
touches one of the two buds, and the point of a blushing petal betrays
the imprisoned and swelling blossom.

--Oh, no, I did not promise a love-story. There may be a little
sentiment now and then, but these papers are devoted chiefly to the
opinions, prejudices, fancies, whims, of myself, The Dictator, and
others of The Teacups who have talked or written for the general benefit
of the company.

Here are some of the remarks I made the other evening on the subject of
Intellectual Over-Feeding and its consequence, Mental Dyspepsia. There
is something positively appalling in the amount of printed matter
yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, secreted by that great gland of the
civilized organism, the press. I need not dilate upon this point, for it
is brought home to every one of you who ever looks into a bookstore or a
public library. So large is the variety of literary products continually
coming forward, forced upon the attention of the reader by stimulating
and suggestive titles, commended to his notice by famous names,
recasting old subjects and developing and illustrating new ones, that
the mind is liable to be urged into a kind of unnatural hunger, leading
to a repletion which is often followed by disgust and disturbed nervous
conditions as its natural consequence.

It has long been a favorite rule with me, a rule which I