The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 395, October 24, 1829

COURT FAVOUR

Dazzled with the height of place,
While our hopes our wits beguile,
No man marks the narrow space
Between a prison and a smile.
Then since fortune's favours fade,
You that in her arms do sleep,
Learn to swim and not to wade,
For the hearts of kings are deep.
But if greatness be so blind,
As to trust in tow'rs of air,
Let it be with goodness joyn'd,
That at least the fall be fair.

LORD BACON

HONESTY

An honest soul is like a ship at sea,
That sleeps at anchor upon the occasion's calm;
But when it rages, and the wind blows high,
She cuts her way with skill and majesty.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER

SOLITUDE

O sweet woods, the delight of solitariness!
O how much do I like your solitariness!
Here nor reason is hid, vailed in innocence,
Nor envy's snaky eye, finds any harbour here.
Nor flatterer's venomous insinuations.
Nor coming humourist's puddled opinions,
Nor courteous ruin of proffer'd usury,
Nor time prattled away, cradle of ignorance,
Nor causeless duty, nor cumber of arrogance,
Nor trifling titles of vanity dazzleth us,
Nor golden manacles stand for a paradise.
Here wrong's name is unheard; slander a monster is,
Keep thy sprite from abuse, here no abuse doth haunt,
What man grafts in a tree dissimulation.

SIR P. SIDNEY'S Arcadia

DISCIPLINE

Each state must have its policies:
Kingdoms have edicts, cities have their charters.
Ev'n the wild outlaw, in his forest walk,
Keeps yet some touch of civil discipline.
For not since Adam wore his verdant apron,
Hath man with man in social union dwelt,
But laws were made to draw that union closer.

OLD PLAY

The Gatherer

A snapper up of unconsidered trifles.

SHAKSPEARE

FASHIONABLE ODDITIES

Lady Morgan, in her Book of the Boudoir, says, "The late Marquess of Londonderry was a liveable, cheerful, give-and-take person." Again, "Vitality, or all-a-live-ness, energy, and activity, are the great elements of what we call talent;" which occasions a critic to observe, "What a prodigious quantity of this "all-a-liveness" her ladyship must have in her composition."

What burns to keep a secret?—Sealing Wax.

When is wine like a pig's tusk?—When it is in a hogs head.

C.J.T

The young Duke of Rutland, when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in a drunken frolic knighted the landlord of an inn in a country town. Being told the next morning what he had done, the duke sent for mine host, and begged of him to consider the ceremonial as merely a drunken frolic. "For my own part, my lord duke, I should readily comply with your excellency's wish; but Lady O'Shannessy!"

EPITAPH ON MARSHAL SAXE

N.B. The figures are to be pronounced in French, as un, deux, trois, &c.

Tircis, the name of a celebrated Arcadian shepherd.

A great personage of the day remarked, that it was a pity after the marshal had by his victories been the cause of so many "Te Deums" that it would not be allowed (the marshal dying in the Lutheran faith) to chant one "de profundis" over his remains.

ROUGE

A lady consulted St. Francis of Sales on the lawfulness of using rouge. "Why," says he, "some pious men object to it; others see no harm in it; I will hold a middle course, and allow you to use it on one cheek."

A PARLIAMENTARY JOKE

The prevailing fashion of certain orators interlarding their speeches with frequent classical quotations, reminds us of a piece of mischievous waggery perpetrated by one of the greatest men of his time. Sheridan once electrified the country gentlemen in the House of Commons, by concluding an animated appeal to their patriotism, with a quotation from Herodotus, which they cheered most vociferously; when, in fact, he merely strung together a jumble of words, a jargon uttered on the instant, which sounded very much like Greek. Pitt, it is said, was in a convulsion of laughter all the time.

THOUGHTS ON THE TIMES

There is not a word of news stirring. Yesterday's papers may serve for to-day's, and Sunday's for all the week. There is, as it were, a syncope in all things; nothing is doing; art, science, and business, are alike at a stand-still. The stage, the press, the easel, the loom, the rudder of the merchantman, and the helm of the state, all are alike in a most extraordinary negative condition. The world is in a catalepsy. It hears and sees, but it can do nothing.—Blackwood.

LIMBIRD'S EDITION OF THE

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