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Lubbock, Sir John, 1834-1913

"The Pleasures of Life"

" [4]
So far is a thorough love and enjoyment of travel from interfering with
the love of home, that perhaps no one can thoroughly enjoy his home who
does not sometimes wander away. They are like exertion and rest, each the
complement of the other; so that, though it may seem paradoxical, one of
the greatest pleasures of travel is the return; and no one who has not
roamed abroad, can realize the devotion which the wanderer feels for
Domiduca--the sweet and gentle goddess who watches over our coming home.
[1] Seneca.
[2] Ruskin.
[3] Morris.
[4] Helps.


CHAPTER VIII.
THE PLEASURES OF HOME.

"There's no place like Home."--_Old English Song_.

It may well be doubted which is more delightful,--to start for a holiday
which has been fully earned, or to return home from one which has been
thoroughly enjoyed; to find oneself, with renewed vigor, with a fresh
store of memories and ideas, back once more by one's own fireside, with
one's family, friends, and books.
"To sit at home," says Leigh Hunt, "with an old folio (?) book of romantic
yet credible voyages and travels to read, an old bearded traveller for its
hero, a fireside in an old country house to read it by, curtains drawn,
and just wind enough stirring out of doors to make an accompaniment to the
billows or forests we are reading of--this surely is one of the perfect
moments of existence.


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