A great tactician and no less a swordsman,
Who ate, last war, more Yankees than he
kill'd.
[Hardsman,
There was the waggish Welsh judge, Jefferies
In his grave office so completely skill'd,
That, when a culprit came for condemnation,
He had his judge's joke for consolation.

LXXXIX.

Good company's a chess-board-there are kings, Queens, bishops, knights, rooks, pawns: the world's a game;

Save that the puppets pull at their own strings, Methinks gay Punch hath something of the

same.

My Muse, the butterfly, hath but her wings, Not stings, and flits through ether without aim. Alighting rarely-were she but a hornet, [it. Perhaps there might be vices which would mourn

XC.

I had forgotten-but must not forget-
An orator, the latest of the session,
Who had deliver'd well a very set [gression
Smooth speech, his first and maidenly trans-
Upon debate: the papers echoed yet
[sion;

With his début, which made a strong impresAnd rank'd with what is every day display'dThe best first speech that ever yet was made.'

XCI.

Proud of his 'Hear hims!' proud, too, of his
And lost virginity of oratory,
[vote
Proud of his learning (just enough to quote),
He revell'd in his Ciceronian glory :

With memory excellent to get by rote,
With wit to hatch a pun or tell a story,
Graced with some merit and with more effrontery,
'His country's pride,' he came down to the

country.

XCII.

But what we can, we glean in this vile age
Of chaff, although our gleanings be not grist,
I must not quite omit the talking sage,
Kit-Cat, the famous conversationist,
Who, in his common-place book, had a page
Prepared each morn for evenings.

list!'

List, ob

Tweed,

1823.

679

I will not dwell upon ragouts or roasts,
Albeit all human history attests
That happiness for man-the hungry sinner!
Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner.

C.

CVI.

Held out unto the hungry Israelites : To this we have added since the love of money, The only sort of pleasure which requites. Youth fades, and leaves our days no longer We tire of mistresses and parasites; [sunny; But oh, ambrosial cash! Ah, who would lose

thee?

When we no more can use, or even abuse, thee?

CI.

The gentlemen got up betimes to shoot,

Or hunt the young, because they liked the sport

The first thing boys like, after play and fruit : The middle-aged, to make the day more short; For ennui is a growth of English root,

Though nameless in our language: we retort The fact for words, and let the French translate That awful yawn which sleep cannot abate. CII.

The elderly walk'd through the library,

And tumbled books, or criticised the pictures, Or saunter'd through the garden piteously, And made upon the hot-house several stric

tures,

Or rode a nag which trotted not too high,

Or on the morning papers read their lectures, Or on the watch their longing eyes would fix, Longing, at sixty, for the hour of six.

CIII.

CIV.

CV.

For some had absent lovers, all had friends. The earth has nothing like a she-epistle, And hardly heaven-because it never ends. I love the mystery of a female missal,

Sometimes a dance (though rarely on field days, For then the gentlemen were rather tired) Display'd some sylph-like figures in its maze: Then there was small-talk ready when required;

Flirtation-but decorous; the mere praise

Of charms that should or should not be admired.

The hunters fought their fox-hunt o'er again, And then retreated soberly-at ten.

CIX.

The politicians, in a nook apart,

Discuss'd the world, and settled all the spheres: The wits watch'd every loophole for their art, To introduce a bon-mot, head and ears. Small is the rest of those who would be smart : A moment's good thing may have cost them years

It would have taught him humanity at least. This sentimental savage, whom it is a mode to quote (amongst the novelists), to show their sympathy for innocent sports and old songs, teaches how to sew up frogs, and break their legs by way of experiment, in addition to the art of angling, the cruel lest, the coldest, and the stupidest of pretended sports. They may talk about the beauties of nature, but the angler merely thinks of his dish of fish; he has no leisure to take his eyes from off the streams, and a single bite is worth to him more than all the scenery around. Besides, some fish bite best on a rainy day. The whale, the shark, and the tunny fishery have somewhat of noble and perilous in them; even net-fishing, trawling, &c., are more humane and useful; but angling! No angler can be a good man.

One of the best men I ever knew-as humane, delicateminded, generous, and excellent a creature as any in the world-was an angler: true, he angled with painted flies, and would have been incapable of the extravagances of I. Walton,' The above addition was made by a friend in reading over the MS.- Audi alteram partem. I leave it to counterbalance my own observation

And out-of-door hath showers, and mists, and With which I could not brew a pastoral:

But, be it as it may, a bard must meet All difficulties, whether great or small,

To spoil his undertaking or complete,
And work away, like spirit upon matter,
Embarrass'd somewhat both with fire and water.
XXXI.

Juan-in this respect at least like saints-
Was all things unto people of all sorts,
And lived contentedly, without complaints,

In camps, in ships, in cottages, or courtsBorn with that happy soul which seldom faints.

And mingling modestly in toils or sports. He likewise could be most things to all women, Without the coxcombry of certain she men.