Incompatibility. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularly the taste for domination..

Doubt begins only at the last frontiers of what is possible..

RICE-WATER, n. A mystic beverage secretly used by our most popular novelists and poets to regulate the imagination and narcotize the conscience..

DELUGE, n. A notable first experiment in baptism which washed away the sins (and sinners) of the world..

REASON, v.i. To weight probabilities in the scales of desire..

OUTCOME, n. A particular type of disappointment . . . . judged by the outcome, the result. This is immortal nonsense; the wisdom of an act is to be j….

Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility..

TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose..

URBANITY, n. The kind of civility that urban observers ascribe to dwellers in all cities but New York. Its commonest expression is heard in the words….

HURRICANE, n. An atmospheric demonstration once very common but now generally abandoned for the tornado and cyclone. The hurricane is still in popula….

At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable..

RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters them..

Fashion, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey..

PREFERENCE, n. A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by the erroneous belief that one thing is better than another..

OLD, adj. In that stage of usefulness which is not inconsistent with general inefficiency, as an "old man". Discredited by lapse of time and offensiv….

Prescription: A physician's guess at what will best prolong the situation with least harm to the patient..

The palmist looks at the wrinkles made by closing the hand and says they signify character. The philosopher reads character by what the hand most lov….

PERIPATETIC, adj. Walking about. Relating to the philosophy of Aristotle, who, while expounding it, moved from place to place in order to avoid his p….

Hail, high Excess especially in wine, To thee in worship do I bend the knee Who preach abstemiousness unto me My skull thy pulpit, as my paunch th….

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic..

RITUALISM, n. A Dutch Garden of God where He may walk in rectilinear freedom, keeping off the grass..