A Pessimist in Theory and Practice

Truth is not always simple--by no means always. Often she is highly complex, and as much mixed as I was just now; and then you don't know where she is, or what she is, and it ge...

It is well occasionally to consult your womankind in such cases, because, though they may not know as much of the facts as you do, still they can sometimes give you an inner lig...

"Let them have some shadow of reason and decency about them, then. Cannot a girl plan a rural excursion, in company with your sister and under your escort, without being accused...

"That is about it. Let us be thankful that you and I are well beyond these follies.--My dear, I wasn't alluding to your age; upon my honor I wasn't. I only meant that your eleva...

Mabel thinks I ought to enliven the account of my trip with descriptions of scenery and the like. But a rock is a rock, and a field is a field, and who wants to know whether a t...

"What is there to be done that is worth doing? It seems to me that everything is overdone. I go into a town, big or little: ten stores where one is needed. How do all these poor...

"You express it inelegantly, but you have caught the idea. Truth is not a half pound package done up in brown paper and permanently deposited in one corner of the pantry shelf;...

"And if I have, is not that a reason why I should be watched and guarded tenderly--why loving arms should enfold my tottering frame, and sweet smiles cheer my declining path, an...

"O, no public talk; only the family, and people who knew the facts and could be trusted. They were all sorry for him too; they thought he was such an ass. You see a performance...

My tongue went too fast last night. Her heart _is_ waking; her wings are sprouting. She must be getting interested in Jim. The hour is at hand, and the man: the horn at the cast...

I had seen and heard little of Hartman since our college days. There he was counted a youth of eminent promise: after that I knew that he had traveled, written something or othe...

The summer has not done for any of us what it ought; quite the reverse. Even I am not in my usual form, if Mabel and Jane are right. They had let me alone for some time: last ni...

Hartman arrived on schedule time, and was duly taken home with me. "Old man," I said, "welcome back to the amenities of life; to the tender charities of man and woman; to the ti...

I began to see light now. "There _are_ others; and though they are of less consequence, her generous heart would not let them suffer. Suppose to one of them this meant life or d...

"Yes," said Mabel, "his motives are always excellent, whatever his words and actions may be. You remember the man in the Bible, who was delivered to Satan for his soul's sake; a...