_Nilus._ Ah! by the way, friend JOHN, whose head is yonder Protruding through the reeds?
_Mr. Bull_ (_loudly_). Humph! Let him ponder What he, perchance, has overheard. No mystery! I simply hold with the great Sire of History. The _Times_ and old HERODOTUS quite agree. And both speak for the Oracle--J. B., Or Jupiter Ammon. The _Débats_ may differ (At the French Press, at best, _I_ am no sniffer), But don't you be alarmed by spleenful splutter, Or what mere bouncing boulevardiers utter. From all intruders you'll be safe, if you But trust to the Old Oracle--and the New! Far cry, old boy, from PHAROAH to the GUELPH. Funny how History _does_ repeat itself!
* See Cartoon "Britannia Discovering the Source of the Nile," p. 233, Vol. XLIV., June 6, 1863.
_Quotation from the Right Hon. Arth-r B-lf-r's Speech on this subject last week._--"A GENERAL FALL IN PRICES WAS SAID TO BE GOOD FOR THE CONSUMER."
Does it look like it in this instance? [*** _So far_ the Court is with Mr. A. B-LF-R.]]
The fault was mine. With piercing pang My trespass I deplore; But, when 'tis I you ought to bang, Why do you bang the door?
Q. E. D.--There is said to be a good deal of illness and absence from lessons of the schoolboy population of London at present. Can there be any connection between this phenomenon and a paragraph which is going the round of the papers, headed, "An objection to Euclid"? What is sport to us may be death to them!
_Ars longa est!_ All know what once that meant; But cranks corrupt so sickeningly have shindied About _their_ ART of late, 'tis evident The rendering now must be, "Art is long-winded!" For _Vita brevis_,--all true men must hope, Brief life for such base Art--and a short rope!
MOTTO--SLIGHTLY MODIFIED FROM GRAY'S "ELEGY"--FOR STODDART'S ELEVEN.--"Still in those 'ashes' live their wonted fire."
_For over half a mile the pavement on the East side of the road is thronged with promenaders, and the curbstone lined with stalls and barrows, and hawkers of various wares. Marketing housewives with covered baskets oscillate undecidedly from stalls to shops, and put off purchasing to the last possible moment. Maids-of-all-work perambulate arm in arm, exchanging airy badinage with youths of their acquaintance, though the latter seem to prefer the society of their own sex. A man with a switchback skittle-board plays gloomy games by himself to an unspeculative group of small boys. The tradesmen stand outside their shops and conduct their business with a happy blend of the methods of a travelling showman and a clown._