Apropos of public speaking, Dr. ------ said that Sir Lytton Bulwer asked
him (I think the anecdote was personal to himself) whether he felt his
heart beat when he was going to speak. "Yes." "Does your voice frighten
you?" "Yes." "Do all your ideas forsake you?" "Yes." "Do you wish the
floor to open and swallow you?" "Yes." "Why, then, you'll make an
orator!" Dr. ------ told of Canning, too, how once, before rising to
speak in the House of Commons, he bade his friend feel his pulse, which
was throbbing terrifically. "I know I shall make one of my best
speeches," said Canning, "because I'm in such an awful funk!" President
Pierce, who has a great deal of oratorical power, is subject to a similar
horror and reluctance.



REFORM-CLUB DINNER.


April 5th.--On Thursday, at eight o'clock, I went to the Reform Club, to
dine with Dr. ------. The waiter admitted me into a great basement hall,
with a tessellated or mosaic or somehow figured floor of stone, and
lighted from a dome of lofty height. In a few minutes Dr. ------
appeared, and showed me about the edifice, which is very noble and of a
substantial magnificence that was most satisfactory to behold,--no
wood-work imitating better materials, but pillars and balustrades of
marble, and everything what it purports to be. The reading-room is very
large, and luxuriously comfortable, and contains an admirable library:
there are rooms and conveniences for every possible purpose; and whatever
material for enjoyment a bachelor may need, or ought to have, he can
surely find it here, and on such reasonable terms that a small income