To have thoughts so unfretful we could abide with them alone for hours on end.

the bag of poison in the mouth of some serpents

Length, arcanity and just plain dullness of some of the festival fare of foreign films certainly provide some cerebral exercise for audiences.

The author of the Waverley novels is another fine example; but he clearly takes his highest rank as a descriptionist—the painter of effects and appearances rather than of facts and of causes.