Snowflakes falling through the darkness, Hiding out of sight Graves of past delight, Till the folded whiteness mocks Watching faces, wan and wet:— O mournful-sweet regret Of the wintry time. REALITIES. I AM informed by “Pen and Pencil,” with a certain harsh inexorableness of tone, that _something_ I must produce this evening, or—incur a sentence too dreadful to be contemplated, no less than that of ostracism (perhaps ostracism for incapacity should be spelt _ass_tracism). Well, what are the words? _Realities_ and _drifting_. Very good; then I’ll take both, for the most characteristic element that I have noted of _realities_ is that they are constantly _drifting_. Wishing to start from an undoubted basis, I asked a friend, before sitting down to write, what exactly he understood by _realities_, and he replied, with the air of a philosopher, “whatever man, through the medium of his senses, can surely realize.” The conclusion I draw is, that there is some inextricable connection between _realities_ and _real lies_. In which I am confirmed by Johnson, who traces the derivation of the word _reality_ as _from_ real. Sir John Lubbock, in his “Origin of Civilization,” under the heading of “Savage Tendency to Deification,” states as a fact that “The king of the Koussa Kaffirs, having broken off a piece of a stranded anchor, died soon afterwards, upon which all the Kaffirs looked upon the anchor as alive, and saluted it respectfully whenever they passed near it.” At a glance it occurred to me, this is a _reality_ well worthy of being brought under the notice of “Pen and Pencil.” Will it not furnish, thought I, material for their philosophers, and mirth for their humorists, and surely an excellent subject for their artists? _But is it true_? Ay, that must be my first discovery. Who shall hope to palm off doubtful _realities_ upon “Pen and Pencil,” without deservedly _drifting_ to disgrace? Without indecent boasting, I believe I may assure this august assembly that I have probed this matter to its very root; the whole truth is in my hands, and shall be faithfully presented to this critical company. I shall be excused from detailing my method of examination; time would fail us were I to make the attempt; suffice it to say that I have brought all possible modes under contribution, and many more, and that not a single fact has been set down unless previously tested by a wild flight of imagination. Upon principle, too, I decline to say how I have arrived at the realities of the case, lest truth should suffer through disapproval of my process.