The pessimist
replied:
"Yes, very good place, but somehow or other this halo don't fit my
head exactly."
The optimist retorted by telling the story of a man being carried down
to purgatory and the Devil laying his victim up against a bank while
he got a drink at a spring--temperature very high. An old friend
accosted him:
"Well, Jim, how's this? No remedy possible; you're a gone coon sure."
The reply came: "Hush, it might be worse."
"How's that, when you are being carried down to the bottomless pit?"
"Hush"--pointing to his Satanic Majesty--"he might take a notion to
make me carry him."
Morley, like myself, was very fond of music and reveled in the morning
hour during which the organ was being played at Skibo. He was
attracted by the oratorios as also Arthur Balfour. I remember they got
tickets together for an oratorio at the Crystal Palace. Both are sane
but philosophic, and not very far apart as philosophers, I understand;
but some recent productions of Balfour send him far afield
speculatively--a field which Morley never attempts. He keeps his foot
on the firm ground and only treads where the way is cleared. No
danger of his being "lost in the woods" while searching for the path.
Morley's most astonishing announcement of recent days was in his
address to the editors of the world, assembled in London.
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