O keep a Diary which interests its writer is one thing; to keep a Diary which will interest its readers is another and very different thing. Most writers of diaries are too much occupied with themselves and their daily doings. They seem to think that because others may wish to know something about them, they will wish to know everything. This is a mistake. There are many things that are not worth knowing, even when they concern the greatest. What can it be to anybody that Byron, say, passed through Genoa on a certain day of a certain year? or that Moore, say, when in Paris, went to Tortoni's and took an ice? To jot down such items as these in a journal is to bring the keeping of journals into contempt. What Moore thought of Byron, or Byron thought of Moore, when they first met, or when they met after an absence, is another matter. It may not be an important one, but it is an interesting one, if each wrote out what he thought of the other with frankness and sincerity. To keep a journal, for other than business purposes, is to believe that it will contain some things, possibly many things, which will come under other eyes than those of the writer. This belief does not insure entire sincerity and frankness on his part. The con