Excerpt from Diana of the Crossways: A Novel
Among the Diaries beginning with the second quarter of our Century there is frequent mention of a lady then becoming famous for her beauty and her wit: "an unusual combination," in the deliberate syllables of one of the writers, who is, however, not disposed to personal irony when speaking of her. It is otherwise in his case: and a general fling at the sex we may deem pardonable, for doing as little harm to womankind as the stone of an urchin cast upon the bosom of mother Earth; though men must look some day to have it returned to them, which is a certainty; and, indeed, full surely will our idle-handed youngster, too, in his riper season, be heard complaining of a strange assault of wanton missiles, coming on him he knows not whence: for we are all of us distinctly marked to get back what we give, even from the thing named inanimate nature.
The "Leaves from the Diary of Henry Wilmers" are studded with examples of the dinner-table wit of the time, not always worth quotation twice; for smart remarks have their measured distances, many requiring to be a brule pourpoint, or within throw of the pistol, to make it hit; in other words, the majority of them are addressed directly to our muscular system, and they have no effect when we stand beyond the range. On the contrary, they reflect somberly on the springs of hilarity in the generation preceding us - with due reserve of credit, of course, to an animal vivaciousness that seems to have wanted so small an incitement. Our old yeomanry farmers, returning to their beds over ferny commons under bright moonlight from a neighbor's harvest-home, eased their bubbling breasts with a ready roar not unakin to it.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.