The Project Gutenberg EBook of Diary And Notes Of Horace Templeton, Esq., by
Charles James Lever

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Diary And Notes Of Horace Templeton, Esq.
Volume I (of II)

Author: Charles James Lever

Release Date: July 21, 2010 [EBook #33216]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HORACE TEMPLETON, I ***

Produced by David Widger

DIARY AND NOTES OF HORACE TEMPLETON, Esq.

VOL. I.

DIARY AND NOTES HORACE TEMPLETON, Esq.

LATE SECRETARY OF LEGATION AT-----.

By Charles James Lever,

Author Of "Harry Lorrequer," "Knight Of Gwynne," Etc. Etc.

In Two Volumes. Vol. I.

Second Edition.

London: Chapman And Hall, 186 Strand.

HORACE TEMPLETON.

CHAPTER I.

_Hotel des Princes, Paris_.

It is a strange thing to begin a "Log" when the voyage is nigh ended!
A voyage without chart or compass has it been: and now is land in
sight--the land of the weary and heart-tired!

Here am I, at the Hotel des Princes, _en route_ for Italy, whither my
doctors have sentenced me! What a sad record would be preserved to the
world if travellers were but to fill up, with good faith, the police
formula at each stage of the journey, which asks, "the object of the
tour!" How terribly often should we read the two short words--"To Die."
With what sorrowful interest would one gaze at the letters formed by a
trembling hand; and yet how many would have to write them! Truly, the
old Italian adage, "_Vedere Napole es poi morire_" has gained a new
signification; and, unhappily, a far more real one.

This same practice of physicians, of sending their patients to linger
out the last hours of life in a foreign land, is, to my thinking, by
no means so reprehensible as the generality of people make out. It is
a theme, however, on which so many commonplaces can be strung, that
common-place people, who, above all others, love their own eloquence,
never weary of it. Away from his children--from his favourite
haunts--from the doctors that understood his case--from his comfortable
house--from the family apothecary,--such are the changes they ring; and
if dying were to be done often, there would be much reason in