QUOTATIONS FOR OCCASIONS.* MUCH labour has been spent of late

in providing preachers with illustrations, similes, quotations, anecdotes, and ornaments of all kind, wherewith they may make their discourses more telling. Mrs. Wood has had the happy thought of doing something of the same service for people who have to dis- charge various social functions, and desire to give them a little touch of fun and wit. Of course it would be better if they could do this sort of thing for themselves. Your borrowed felicities have a way of sometimes missing fire. And there will, of course, be a risk of becoming stale from too frequent use. Still this volume is a clever idea very cleverly worked out. Half of it is given to dinners and dishes, and this half is by far the better. The quotations that are supplied for various toasts are, and, indeed, could hardly help being, commonplace. The speaker who has to propose the health of a guest or host, be he parson, or author, or man of war, and desires to find a decoration for his speech, will probably want something of a serious or laudatory kind. If, you supply him with something bantering or satirical

Quotations for Occariona. Compiled by Katherine B. Wood. London: T. Fuller Ilium, it is quite likely that he may make an awkward use of it. If your subject is a parson you cannot go wrong with Goldsmith's—

"Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, And fools who came to scoff remained to pray ; " or, if a flight of fancy is appropriate, with Shabsspeare's- " Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd."

Not a few of our readers would appreciate the appositeness

of-

" To have a thin stipend and an everlasting parish, Lord, what a torment 'tie!"

When you propose "The Navy," and couple it with the name of Admiral Mainsail, you are safe with— "A broadside for our Admiral, Load every crystal gun."

This last is Oliver Wendell Holmes's happy equivalent for "Charge your glasses, gentlemen." It is the same writer's ingenuity that provides for "The Army" the gracious wish— "Health, peace, and many a bloodless year To fight his battles o'er,"

while an inarticulate warrior may excuse his deficiencies of

speech with— "I have no words.

My voice is in my sword."

Doctors are so certain to have the last word that they can very well afford to stand a jest, as that of Pope Adrian, who said that the physician was necessary for a populous country, lest men should grow so thick that one could not live for the other, or Byron's- "Physicians mend or end us."

(Was this, by the way, the original of Mr. Morley's famous alternative?) But, as has been said, the cream of the book, to use an appropriate metaphor, is to be found in the occasions of the table. Mrs. Wood begins with providing quotations for the menu. Among them are,— " A solemn sacrifice performed in state."

"Now then your men of wit Will condescend to take a bit."

"Some are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested."

"With a few friends, and a few dishes dine, And much of mirth and moderate wine."

"What an excellent thing did God bestow upon man when he gave him a good stomach."

But we miss a quotation that would serve excellently well for a great banquet. Milton's gorgeous description of the "table in the wilderness "

"A table richly spread, in regal mode, With dishes piled, and meats of noblest sort And savour ; beasts of chase or fowl of game, In pastry built, or from the spit, or boiled, Gris-amber-steamed ; all fish from sea or shore, Freshlet or parting brook, of shell or fin."

Next come the special dishes, and some of these are peculiarly happy. "A dozen of divine points" is a felicity which might not be appropriate where " blae-points " are not a household word. But "Drenched in the sea, notwith- standing their freshness," and "I'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon," will be understood everywhere. The lobster will be recognised as "a most delicate monster," and shrimp sauce was never so poetically described as by Ben Jonson, in his- " Our shrimps to swim again, as when they lived, In a rare butter made of dolphin's milk Whose cream does look like opals."

"Enlarged him and made a friend of him" is a happy conceit for "pate de foie gras," and "wedded joy and nourishment" for "pork and beans," though this latter satisfies the appetite and ruins the digestion more frequently on the other side of the Atlantic than on this. Here is a happy collection for green peas :— " How green you are and fresh."

"We can call these delicate creatures ours."

"A most fresh and delicate creature."

"Beautiful as sweet, And young as beautiful, and soft as young."

And here, again, some for souffles :—

"The earth bath bubbles as the water has, And these are of them."

"lie formed this coinage of well-bodied air "

and we may add from another part of the volume as more appropriate here,— " Trifles light as air."

For "Welsh rabbit," Mrs. Wood has selected some gloomy warnings, as-

" A man can die but once."

"I do not set my life at a pin's fee."

"Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast."

This is an absolute, though very common, delusion. Toasted cheese is one of the most wholesome and digestible of foods.

We may give a few other specimens of Mrs. Wood's happy thoughts :— Coffee—" Water with berries in it."

Artichoke—" And with forced fingers rude Scatter your leaves."

Sorbets—"So coldly sweet."

Venison—" Art thou there, my deer ? " Whitebait—" Many-headed multitude."

To turn from meats to games, we find, of course, that golf supplies a multitude of conceits. " Wha drudge and drive thro' wet and dry ? " gives the view of the outsider ; the golfer finds an expression of his feelings in "How jocund did they drive," or "As long as nature will bear up with this exercise, so long I daily vow to use it," or in Cowper's couplets, "The joy, the danger, and the toil o'erpays, 'Tis exercise and health and length of days."

Mrs. Wood has searched carefully and over a wide range, but there are fresh woods and pastures new for any that care to imitate her. We can easily imagine that looking for such fancies would be a very fascinating pursuit.