I don't recognise men and women; they are puppets with holiday phrases: and I tell you what, Percy, these novelists make the last mistake you would suppose them guilty of; they have not romance enough in them to paint the truths of society.

Old gentlemen say novels are bad teachers of life, because they make it too ideal; quite the reverse: novels are too trite! too superficial! Their very talk about love, and the fuss they make about it, show how shallow real romance is with them; for they say nothing new on it, and real romance is for ever striking out new thoughts.

Am I not right, Percy ?--No! life, be it worldly as it may, has a vast deal of romance in it.

Every one of us (even poor I) have a mine of thoughts, and fancies, and wishes, that books are too dull and commonplace to reach the heart is a romance in itself." "A philosophical romance, my Fanny; full of mysteries and conceits, and refinements, mixed up with its deeper passages.

But how came you so wise ?" "Thank you!" answered Fanny, with a profound curtsey.