t, better, cheaper by half:
(He knew quite well the age abused it
Because, forsooth, the Normans used it)
These, planted in the citadel,
Would reach the walls say,--very well;
There, having spent their utmost force,
They'd drop down right, as a matter of course,
A thousand miles! Think--a thousand miles!
What was the weight for driving piles
To this? He calculated it--
'Twould equal, when both Houses sit,
The weight of the entire building,
Including Members, paint, and gilding;
But, if a speech or the address
From the throne were given, something less,
Because, as certain snores aver,
The House is then much heavier.

Now this, though very much a rub like
For Ministers, convinced the public;
And Priam, who liked to hear its brays
To any tune but "the Marseillaise,"
Summoned a Privy Council, where
'Twas shortly settled to confer
On Helenus a sole command
Of Specials.--He headed that daring band!

And sixteen Specials in Priam's keep
Got up from their mahogany;
They smoked their pipes in silence deep
Till there was such a fog--any
Attempt to discover the priest in the smother
Had bothered old Airy and Adams and t'other
And--Every son of an _English_ mother.

June, 1848.

No. II. Swift's Dunces

"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this
sign, that the DUNCES are all in confederacy against him."--_Swift_.

How shall we know the dunces from the man of genius, who is no doubt
our superior in judgment, yet knows himself for a fool--by the
proverb?

At least, my dear Doctor, you will let me, with the mass of readers,
have clearer wits than the dunces--then why should I not know what
you are as soon as, or sooner than Bavius, &c.--unless a dunce has a
good nose, or a natural instinct for detecting wit.

Now I take it that these people stigmatized as dunces are but men of
ill-balanced mental faculties, yet perhaps, in a great degree,
superior to the average of minds. For instance, a poet of much merit,
but more ambition, has written the "Lampiad," an epic; when he should
not have dared beyond the Doric reed: his ambitious pride has
prevented the publication of excellent pastorals, therefore the world
only knows him for his failure. This, I say, is a likely man to
become a detractor; for his good judgment shows the imperfections of
most works, his own included; his ambition (an ill-combination of
self-conscious wort