Alice, or the Mysteries — Complete

5

"The spirit of man is more penetrating than logical, and gathers more than it can garner."

6

"Furl your sails, and let the next boat carry you to the shore."

7

The object of parochial reform is not that of economy alone;

not merely to reduce poor-rates.  The ratepayer ought to remember that the more he wrests from the grip of the sturdy mendicant, the more he ought to bestow on undeserved distress.  Without the mitigations of private virtue, every law that benevolists could make would be harsh.

8

"Now this, now that, distracts the active mind."

9

"Forgotten by Tully and bullied by the Senate."

10

"When I reflect, how great your little men are in their own consideration!"

11

"The health of the soul is not more sure than that of the body; and although we may appear free from passions, there is not the less danger of their attack than of falling sick at the moment we are well."

12

"There is nothing so great as the collection of the minute."

13

"Wrapping truth in obscurity."

14

"They who had the means to live at ease, either in splendour or in luxury, preferred the uncertainty of change to their natural security."

15

"The greatest defect of penetration is not that of not going just up to the point,—'tis the passing it."

16

"Certes, it is the fact, Icas, that you are always engaged in tricks or scrapes of some sort or other; it must be the devil that bewitches you."

17

"Prodigies have occurred: a strange black dog came into the house;

a snake glided from the tiles, through the court; the hen crowed."

18

The reader will remember that these remarks were written long before the last French Revolution, and when the dynasty of Louis Philippe was generally considered most secure.

19

"Flourished without fruit, and was destroyed without regret."

20

Has not all this proved prophetic?

21

"What shall I do, a bachelor?"

22

"I bid you look into the lives of all men, as it were into a mirror."

23

"My fortune is about to take a turn."

24

"A former state of things returns."

25

"The things begun are interrupted and suspended."

26

"As when a snake glides into light, having fed on pernicious pastures."

27

"The girl is the least part of himself."

28

"Why, in vain, do you catch at fleeting shadows? That which you seek is nowhere."

29

See, for description of this scenery, and the fate of De Retz, the high-wrought and glowing romance by Mr. Ritchie called "The Magician."

30

See "Ernest Maltravers," book iv., p. 164.

31

"Ernest Maltravers," book iv., p. 181.

32

"Our banker always seemed more struck by Alice's moral feelings than even by her physical beauty.  Her love for her child, for instance, impressed him powerfully," etc.  "His feelings altogether for Alice, the designs he entertained towards her, were of a very complicated nature, and it will be long, perhaps, before the reader can thoroughly comprehend them."—See "Ernest Maltravers," book iv., p. 178.

33

See "Ernest Maltravers," book v., p. 221.

34

See "Ernest Maltravers," book v., p. 228.

35

"To each lot its appropriate place."

36

One may be more sharp than one's neighbour, but one can't be sharper than all one's neighbours.—ROCHEFOUCAULD.