secret of happiness is to hold fast to such simple, old-fashioned virtues as love of home, a life of simplicity, and appreciation of all the beautiful things of Nature, which are so richly strewn about us in Warwickshire, and never to lose sight of the best of all things—the great lesson of the pure Christian faith, the lesson which teaches us how the Divine sacrifice of self for the sake of others was sufficient to redeem the world! A happy New Year and a century of hope and good to all of you."
In November, 1901, Miss Corelli delivered her
first lecture in Scotland. It was called "The Vanishing
Gift: an address on the Decay of the Imagination,"
and was listened to with the greatest
appreciation by a crowded audience of the members
of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, and
their friends, numbering some four thousand
persons.
Scotland has ever been a more literary country than England. A novel that fails in England often sells well in Scotland. Scotch people are very loyal to the magazines they like, and they always display a keen interest in literary ventures. Thackeray was a great favorite up there. "I have had three per cent. of the whole population here," he wrote from Edinburgh in November, 1856, "If I could but get three per cent. of London!" Both Dickens and Thackeray received tangible tokens of regard from Edinburgh people, Thackeray's taking the form of
