Our most intimate friend is not he to whom we show the worst, but the
best of our nature.

* * * * *

Nothing comes amiss to Nature,--all is fish that comes to her net. If
there be a living form of perfect beauty, instinct with soul,--why, it
is all very well, and suits Nature well enough. But she would just as
lief have that beautiful, soul-illumined body for worms' meat and
earth's manure!

* * * * *

Instances of two ladies, who vowed never again to see the light of the
sun, on account of disappointments in love. Each of them kept her vow,
living thenceforth, and dying after many years, in apartments closely
shut up, and lighted by candles. One appears to have lived in total
darkness.

* * * * *

The infirmities that come with old age may be the interest on the debt
of nature, which should have been more seasonably paid. Often the
interest will be a heavier payment than the principal.

* * * * *

By a Lord of the Admiralty, (in a speech in Parliament during our
Revolution,) the number of American sailors employed in the British navy
previous to the Revolution was estimated at eighteen thousand.