ention of the section to a most important and serious point. The
author of the treatise just read had alluded to the prevalent taste for
bears'-grease as a means of promoting the growth of hair, which
undoubtedly was diffused to a very great and (as it appeared to him) very
alarming extent. No gentleman attending that section could fail to be
aware of the fact that the youth of the present age evinced, by their
behaviour in the streets, and at all places of public resort, a
considerable lack of that gallantry and gentlemanly feeling which, in
more ignorant times, had been thought becoming. He wished to know
whether it were possible that a constant outward application of
bears'-grease by the young gentlemen about town had imperceptibly infused
into those unhappy persons something of the nature and quality of the
bear. He shuddered as he threw out the remark; but if this theory, on
inquiry, should prove to be well founded, it would at once explain a
great deal of unpleasant eccentricity of behaviour, which, without some
such discovery, was wholly unaccountable.

'THE PRESIDENT highly complimented the learned gentleman on his most
valuable suggestion, which produced the greatest effect upon the
assembly; and remarked that only a week previous he had seen some young
gentlemen at a theatre eyeing a box of ladies with a fierce intensity,
which nothing but the influence of some brutish appetite could possibly
explain. It was dreadful to reflect that our youth were so rapidly
verging into a generation of bears.

'After a scene of scientific enthusiasm it was resolved that this
important question should be immediately submitted to the consideration
of the council.

'THE PRESIDENT wished to know whether any gentleman could inform the
section what had become of the dancing-dogs?

'A MEMBER replied, after some hesitation, that on the day after three
glee-singers had been committed to prison as criminals by a late most
zealous police-magistrate of the metropolis, the dogs had abandoned their
professional duties, and dispersed themselves in different quarters of
the town to gain a livelihood by less dangerous means. He was given to
understand that since that period they had supported themselves by lying
in wait for and robbing blind men's poodles.

'MR. FLUMMERY exhibited a twig, claiming to be a veritable branch of that
noble tree known to naturalists as the SHAKSPEARE, which has taken root
in every land and climate, and