then to become a mere nothing, especially when a man is as highly

placed as I am. And then to think that we all, even with patent

lacquer, are nothing more than insects of a moment on that ant-hill

the earth, though we may be insects with stars and garters, places and

offices! One feels quite a novice beside these venerable

million-year-old boulders. On last New Year's eve I was reading the

book, and had lost myself in it so completely, that I forgot my

usual New Year's diversion, namely, the wild hunt to Amack. Ah, you