Italy in a chapter—and am not quite sure but these engravings are more picturesque than the originals."
"And I," replied Lady Mandeville, "delight in its difficulties: a bad dinner is a novelty, and a little danger is an enjoyment for which I am thankful. There are two readings of content—and mine would be, monotony."
"Blessed be that amiable arrangement of fate, which gives such variety of tastes! I knew a lady who made a pet of a dove—I knew another whose passion was for grasshoppers. I'll tell you a story, at which I laughed at first, and afterwards philosophised upon. You know the frightful goîtres which so disfigure the inhabitants of the Valais; but they themselves consider them to be personal advantages of no small attraction. In my youth I was a little touched with those vagrant habits you have been advocating; and one day I found myself in a small mountain chapel, where a Swiss pastor was encouraging content among his congregation, by dwelling on the many levelling circumstances of humanity—the sickness or the sorrow which brought the happiness of the wealthy to a level with that of the poor. Taking it for granted I was as ignorant of his
