urprising. It has sometimes, though we regret to
say rarely, happened, that, as in the present instance, we have been
able to deal out unqualified praise, but never found that the dose in
this case disagreed with the most squeamish stomach; on the contrary,
the patient has always seemed exceedingly comfortable after he had
swallowed it. He has been known to take the 'Review' home and keep his
wife from a ball, and his children from bed, till he could administer it
to them, by reading the article aloud. He has even been heard to
recommend the 'Review' to his acquaintance at the clubs, as the best
number which has yet appeared, and one, who happened to be an M.P. as
well as an author, gave a _conditional_ order, that in case his last
work should be favourably noticed, a dozen copies should be sent down by
the mail to the borough of ----. But, on the other hand, when it has
happened that the general course of our criticism has been unfavourable,
if by accident we happened to introduce the smallest spice of _praise_,
the patient immediately fell into paroxysms--declaring that the part
which we foolishly thought might offend him had, on the contrary, given
him pleasure--positive pleasure, but _that_ which he could not possibly
either forget or forgive, was the grain of praise, be it ever so small,
which we had dropped in, and for which, and _not for our censure_, he
felt constrained, in honour and conscience, to visit us with his extreme
indignation. Can any reader or writer inform us how it is that praise in
the wholesale is so very agreeable to the very same stomach that rejects
it with disgust and loathing, when it is scantily administered; and
above all, can they tell us why it is, that the indignation and nausea
should be in the exact inverse ratio to the quantity of the ingredient?
These effects, of which we could quote several cases much more violent
than Mr. Tennyson's, puzzle us exceedingly; but a learned friend, whom
we have consulted, has, though he could not account for the phenomenon,
pointed out what he thought an analogous case. It is related of Mr.
Alderman Faulkner, of convivial memory, that one night when he expected
his guests to sit late and try the strength of his claret and his head,
he took the precaution of placing in his wine-glass a strawberry, which
his doctor, he said, had recommended to him on account of its cooling
qualities: on the faith of this specific, he drank even more deeply,
and, as might