ed, and I recalled his own lines from his sonnet:

SHAKESPEARE

Others abide our question. Thou art free.
We ask and ask--Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill
Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,

Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,
Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,
Spares but the cloudy border of his base
To the foil'd searching of mortality;

And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,
Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honour'd, self-secure,
Didst stand on earth unguess'd at--Better so!

All pains the immortal spirit must endure,
All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow,
Find their sole voice in that victorious brow.

I knew Mr. Shaw (Josh Billings) and wished Mr. Arnold, the apostle of
sweetness and light, to meet that rough diamond--rough, but still a
diamond. Fortunately one morning Josh came to see me in the Windsor
Hotel, where we were then living, and referred to our guest,
expressing his admiration for him. I replied:

"You are going to dine with him to-night. The ladies are going out and
Arnold and myself are to dine alone; you complete the trinity."

To this he demurred, being a modest man, but I was inexorable. No
excuse would be taken; he must come to oblige me. He did. I sat
between them at dinner and enjoyed this meeting of extremes. Mr.
Arnold became deeply interested in Mr. Shaw's way of putting things
and liked his Western anecdotes, laughing more heartily than I had
ever seen him do before. One incident after another was told from the
experience of the lecturer, for Mr. Shaw had lectured for fifteen
years in every place of ten thousand inhabitants or more in the United
States.

Mr. Arnold was desirous of hearing how the lecturer held his
audiences.

"Well," he said, "you mustn't keep them laughing too long, or they
will think you are laughing at them. After giving the audience
amusement you must become earnest and play the serious role. For
instance, 'There are two things in this life for which no man is ever
prepared. Who will tell me what these are?' Finally some one cries out
'Death.' 'Well, who gives me the other?' Many respond--wealth,
happiness, strength, marriage, taxes. At last Josh begins, solemnly:
'None of you has given the second. There are two things on earth for
which no man is ever prepared, and them's twins,' and the house
shakes." Mr. A