Note 27 — LECTURE IV. —— DISCARDING, AND ITS DIFFICULTIES. ——

That young and curly period when I was influenced by the fashions has passed away. Eheu fugaces, etc. It may be easier to remember “strong” than “best protected”; one epithet is certainly three syllables shorter than the other, but it seems a pity, for the sake of those three syllables, to use an expression which is utterly misleading.

In “The Art of Practical Whist” also “strongest” is used without any qualification whatever, and here you only save two syllables; although the Commination Service is seldom read now—even if, like Royal Oak Day and Herr Von Joel, it should cease altogether to be retained by the Establishment—to make the blind man go out of his way would still be inexpedient, unless you make him go out of your own way as well, for you may cut him for a partner; if you have no respect for the blind, surely you have some regard for your pocket-money.