Part 38 (1/2)

You ask me if I think your poems good; If I could praise your poems, Gibbs,--I would.

EGERTON WEBBE, _apud_ LEIGH HUNT.

What I admire in the order to which you belong [the aristocracy], is that they do live in the air, that they excel in athletic sports; that they can only speak one language; and that they never read.

This is not a complete education, but it is the highest education since the Greek.

_Phoebus_, in LORD BEACONSFIELD's _Lothair_.

_RELIABLE._

(A MILD PROTEST.)

Shut up a party who uses ”Reliable”

When he means ”Trustworthy;” 'tis undeniable That his excuses are flimsy and friable, And his conceptions of grammar most pliable.

No doubt he'd p.r.o.nounce this line's last word ”enviable:”

Invent, for bad fish (which he'd sell) the word ”criable,”

Say that his faded silk hat might be dyeable, And accent French vilely--allude to _le diable_.

If his name's William, 'twould be most enj'yable To see Mr. Calcraft preparing to tie a Bill.

Now let Punch hope he has stamped out ”Reliable.”

s.h.i.+RLEY BROOKS, _Wit and Humour_.

”I see,” said my clerical neighbour, addressing myself, ”you stick to port.” ”Yes,” I said, ”and so am safe from being half-seas over.”

W. H. HARRISON, _Reminiscences_.

All tradesmen cry up their own wares: In this they agree well together: The Mason by stone and lime swears; The Tanner is always for leather; The Smith still for iron would go; The Schoolmaster stands up for teaching; And the Parson would have you to know There's nothing on earth like his preaching.

LORD NEAVES, _Songs and Verses_.

Matrimony--the high sea for which no compa.s.s has yet been invented.

HEINRICH HEINE, _Musical Notes from Paris_.

O daughters! make your markets while you can, For bloom soon groweth as the water wan; The early bird picks up the marrying man.

_Once a Week._

He was the most even-tempered man I ever knew: he was always cross.