th notes--and capital notes they are--with
a magnificent Table of Contents, an Index of Authors, an Index of
First Lines, an Index of Dogs Mentioned by Name in the Poems, and an
Index of the Species of Dogs Mentioned. So that, even if he miss
transportation to an equal sky, the dog has better treatment on earth
than most authors. And Mr. Nutt and the Messrs. Constable have done
their best; and everyone knows how good is that best. And the wonder
is, as Dr. Johnson remarked (concerning a dog, by the way), not that
the thing is done so well, but that it should be done at all.

OF SEASONABLE NUMBERS:

_A Baconian Essay_

Dec. 26, 1891.

That was a Wittie Invective made by _Montaigny_ upon the _Antipodean_,
Who said they must be Thieves that pulled on their breeches when
Honest Folk were scarce abed. So is it Obnoxious to them that purvey
_Christmas Numbers_, _Annuals_, and the like, that they commonly write
under _Sirius_ his star as it were _Capricornus_, feigning to Scate
and Carol and blow warm upon their Fingers, while yet they might be
culling of Strawberries. And all to this end, that Editors may take
the cake. I know One, the Father of a long Family, that will sit a
whole June night without queeching in a Vessell of Refrigerated Water
till he be Ingaged with hard Ice, that the _Publick_ may be docked no
pennyweight of the Sentiments incident to the _Nativity_. For we be
like Grapes, and goe to Press in August. But methinks these rigours do
postulate a _Robur Corporis_ more than ordinary (whereas 'tis but one
in ten if a Novelist overtop in Physique); and besides will often fail
of the effect. As I _myself_ have asked--the Pseudonym being but
gauze--

"O! Who can hold a fire in his hand
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?"

Yet sometimes, because some things are in kind very Casuall, which if
they escape prove Excellent (as the man who by Inadvertence inherited
the throne of the _Grand Turk_ with all appertayning) so that the kind
is inferiour, being subject to Perill, but that which is Excellent
being proved superiour, as the Blossom of March and the Blossom of
May, whereof the French verse goeth:--

"Bourgeon de Mars, enfant de Paris;
Si un eschape, il en vaut dix."

--so, as I was saying (till the Mischief infected my Protasis), albeit
the gross of writings will moulder between _St. John's_ feast and _St.
Stephen's_, yet, if one survive, 'tis odds he will prove Money in your