Part 55 (1/2)
J. S. BLACKIE, _Musa Burschicosa_.
Punsters being abused, and the old joke repeated that ”He who puns will pick a pocket,”
some one said, ”Punsters themselves have no pockets.” ”No,” said Lamb, ”they carry only a _ridicule_.”
CRABB ROBINSON, _Diary_.
It is always a pleasure to me when two of my friends like each other, just as I am always glad when two of my enemies take to fighting with each other.
HEINRICH HEINE, _Preface to Don Quixote_.
He stood on his head on the wild sea-sh.o.r.e, And joy was the cause of the act, For he felt as he never had felt before, Insanely glad, in fact.
And why? In that vessel that left the bay His mother-in-law had sail'd To a tropical country far away, Where tigers and snakes prevail'd.
_Songs of Singularity._
[Berkeley] had no ear for music himself, but music was an enthusiasm in the family, and he retained the well-known Signor Pasquilino for years to teach his children. It was then that the Signor, who had been learning English from a dictionary, exclaimed in an outbreak of grat.i.tude, ”May G.o.d _pickle_ your lords.h.i.+p!”
A. C. FRASER, _Berkeley_.
Women always did, from the first, make a muss in a garden.
C. D. WARNER, _My Summer in a Garden_.
_GOOD ADVICE._
This gardener's rule applies to youth and age: When young ”sow wild oats,” but when old ”grow sage.”
H. J. BYRON, in _English Epigrams_.
The sacred slow harmonium bring, The gentler pianette, The cymbals, with sonorous ring, The dulcet flageolet.
Nor be the voice of glory dumb, Of conquest and of strife, Bring forth the stirring trump and drum, The shrill and piercing fife.
Ay, bring them all, my soul with glee To music I'll devote; Bring all--for all are one to me,-- I cannot play a note!
_Songs of Singularity._
We sometimes hate those who differ from us in opinion worse than we should for an attempt to injure us in the most serious point. A favourite theory is a possession for life; and we resent any attack upon it proportionably.
W. HAZLITT, _Characteristics_.
When Mrs. M'Gibbon was preparing to act Jane Sh.o.r.e, at Liverpool, her dresser, an ignorant country girl, informed her that a woman had called to request two box orders, because she and her daughter had walked four miles on purpose to see the play. ”Does she know me?” inquired the mistress.