Learnt of Foster’s Corn Law and Orde’s resolutions in the History class. Dr. Scannell showed me to-day during German a first-class relic of St. Agatha together with a document in Latin certifying its verity, which I had to translate. Talking about relics, I asked him about Mark Twain’s ‘Innocents Abroad’ which I read. He said that Twain’s accusations were utterly blasphemous: that he had investigated the matter himself, and taking Twain’s sneers at the relics of the True Cross for example, he showed me how a match may be broken into 15 tiny pieces, and if there are 10,000 matches in a beam of wood, surely there could be countless relics of the True Cross. – Lately I am inclined to laugh a lot at the smallest thing, and as this savours of hysteria, I must put a stop to it. I am always blushing, too, without the slightest reason, and often I wish I could control myself, because it is stupid to blush and feel embarrassed before young ladies and gentlemen whom one would like to kick for their smartness and put-on airs.
