From the Preface: Among the topics that arise [in this book] are family roots and other human connections; places; travel; books; food; manners and morals; urban design; womanhood; liberal education; natural scenes and objects; and music and architecture. Directed toward discriminating readers, the volume as a whole may be taken as an exercise in seeing the world, even feeling it, and in assessing and appreciating experience (the author’s, others’, and one’s own) and the power of literature to render it.