m business or a
few evenings of ball-room devotion, has cost me three years' labor, and
it is not yet accomplished. But I suppose it is easier for other men to
find some one worthy of _them_.

I had read the poets: I had conceived an ideal of a faultless creature,
and with the enthusiasm of youth I sought for a woman to worship as a
star--one whom I should adore--one far above me, from whom it would be
honor to win a smile, and--and all that sort of thing. Alas! I found
they smiled before I could make my first bow at an introduction. At
first I blamed the poets--thought they had been mistaken--had not
studied human nature; but the truth gradually dawned upon me. _The
fault was mine_! The imagination of man had not been able to create a
hero of fiction like myself: in fact, had authorship attained such a
triumph, the most fastidious maiden would have been obliged to fall in
love at first sight, thereby spoiling many a fine three-volumed romance
and heroic cantos innumerable. How ruinous would the possession of
perfection such as mine have been to the chivalry of the Middle Ages!

I do not think any less of the ladies for the ease of my conquests: I
know how impossible it is for the poor dears to resist my charms; but oh
the happiness of mediocrity!

I was occupied for a whole season searching for the being whom I called
my star. My fancy was so pleased with the idea of basking in her
radiance, I had so fully persuaded myself to be guided by her light to
all things great and high, I had learned to think of her with so much
devotion, that I could not give up my hope of finding her somewhere. I
went to all the popular summer-resorts in turn, meeting only
disappointment. The star type of girls did not seem to be the mode that
season: I could see no trace of her I came to find. Though saddened, I
was too young to despair: in my usual clear and sensible manner I
thought the matter over. After all, I reflected, I suppose I can find a
woman worthy of me who is not a star. I doubt not the poets were sincere
in their civility to persons of the other sex. The exaggeration arose
from the absence of any really superior man with whom to compare them.
They _seemed_ stars in contrast with the existing male species:
_I_ had not yet appeared.

Another summer found me renewing my search with unabated vigor, but this
time on a different basis, having determined to lay romance aside--to
seek for nothing above me--to be content with an eq