two have stopped upon their way to listen with a smile. That alone
persuades me that one does no harm by speaking, even if there are
other passers-by who say what a tiresome note it is, that they have
heard it a hundred times before, and cannot think why the stupid
bird does not vary his song. Personally, I would rather hear the
yellow-hammer utter his sharp monotonous notes, with the dropping
cadence at the end, than that he should try to imitate the
nightingale.

However, as I have said, I am quite willing to believe that the
critics speak, or think they speak, in the interests of the public,
and with a tender concern that the public should not be bored. And
I will take my leave of them by saying, like Miss Flite, that I
will ask them to accept a blessing, and that when I receive a
judgment, I shall confer estates impartially.

But my last word shall be to my readers, and I will beg of them not
to be deceived either by experts or by critics; on the one hand,
not to be frightened away from speculating and reflecting about the
possible meanings of life by the people who say that no one under
the degree of a Bachelor of Divinity has any right to tackle the
matter; and, on the other hand, I would implore them to believe
that a quiet life is not necessarily a dull life, and that the
cutting off of alcohol does not necessarily mean a lowering of
physical vitality; but rather that if they will abstain for a
little from dependence upon excitement, they will find their lives
flooded by a new kind of quality, which heightens perception and
increases joy. Of course souls will ache and ail, and we have to
bear the burden of our ancestors' weaknesses as well as the burden
of our own; but just as, in the physical region, diet and exercise