"The clergy are, practically, the most irresponsible of all talkers. [<i>"Evangelical Teaching: Dr. Cumming," The Westminster Review, 1885.</i>]" - George Eliot

Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honey-moon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic - the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which make the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.

There was no gleam, no shadow, for the heavens, too, were one still, pale cloud; no sound or motion in anything but the dark river that flowed and moaned like an unresting sorrow.

I've never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them.