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reader who is interested in this curious branch of literature will observe that the famous French Ana, and the no less celebrated English Table Talk of Selden, Walpole, Coleridge, and others, have not been overlooked.

For his own part, the editor will simply paraphrase the remark of Montaigne, and say, that he has here made only a nosegay of culled flowers, and brought nothing of his own save the string which ties them.

C

F

A TREASURY

OF

TABLE TALK.

CONVERSATION.

Guests should be neither loquacious nor silent; because eloquence is for the forum, and silence for the bed-chamber. Varro.

HOW A LAWYER ENTERED HEAVEN.

There is a pleasant story of a lawyer, who, being refused entrance into heaven by St Peter, contrived to throw his hat inside the door; and then, being permitted by the kind saint to go in and fetch it, took advantage of the latter's fixture as doorkeeper to refuse to come back again. Leigh Hunt.

RAILWAY TRAVELLING.

Railway travelling is not travelling at all; it is merely being sent to a place, and very little different from becoming a parcel. Ruskin.

GENIUS AND LEARNING.

If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators. Hazlitt.

HOW TO GROW RICH.

There is a Spanish proverb, that a lapidary who would grow rich must buy of those who go to be executed, as not caring how cheap they sell ; and sell to those who go to be married, as not caring how dear they buy. Thomas Fuller.

PUNSTERS Dangerous.

People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.

Holmes.

AN ALL-SUFFICIENT REASON.

"Pall Mall Gazette-why Pall Mall Gazette?" asked Wagg.

"Because the editor was born at Dublin, the sub-editor at Cork, because the proprietor lives in Paternoster Row, and the paper is published in Catherine Street, Strand."

HUMAN REASON.

Thackeray.

Human reason is like a drunken man on horseback set it up on one side, and it tumbles over on the other.

CANDID CRITICISM.

Luther.

"That was excellently observed," say I, "when I read a passage in an author where his opinion agrees with mine. When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken." Swift.

PROMISES.

Promises was the ready money that was first coined and made current by the law of nature, to support that society and commerce that was necessary for the comfort and security of mankind. Clarendon.

OLD FRIENDS.

Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old Shoes; they were easiest for his Feet. Selden.

CONSCIENCE.

Conscience is a great ledger book, in which all our offences are written and registered, and which time reveals to the sense and feeling of the offender. Burton.

WAR.

What a fine looking thing is war! Yet, dress it as we may, dress and feather it, daub it with gold, huzza it, and sing swaggering songs about it-what is it, nine times out of ten, but murder in uniform ! Douglas Jerrold.

VERY HEAVY READING.

There was, it is said, a criminal in Italy, who was suffered to make his choice between Guicciardini and the galleys. He chose the history. But the war of Pisa was too much for him. He changed his mind, and went to the oars.

Macaulay.

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