and envy us our abode of glory and delight! If _they_
think it pleasant, surely _we_ should be content. Have we not been
taught to live for others and not for ourselves, and are we not acting
up bravely to the teaching--in this most curious method?

Ah! yes, we are self-sacrificing enough, and loyal enough in our
devotion to this new-crowned king, the child of Prince Imposture and
Princess Pretense. Never before was despot so blindly worshiped! Never
had earthly sovereign yet such world-wide sway!

Man, if he would live, _must_ worship. He looks around, and what to him,
within the vision of his life, is the greatest and the best, that he
falls down and does reverence to. To him whose eyes have opened on the
nineteenth century, what nobler image can the universe produce than
the figure of Falsehood in stolen robes? It is cunning and brazen and
hollow-hearted, and it realizes his souls ideal, and he falls and kisses
its feet, and clings to its skinny knees, swearing fealty to it for
evermore!

Ah! he is a mighty monarch, bladder-bodied King Humbug! Come, let us
build up temples of hewn shadows wherein we may adore him, safe from the
light. Let us raise him aloft upon our Brummagem shields. Long live our
coward, falsehearted chief!--fit leader for such soldiers as we! Long
live the Lord-of-Lies, anointed! Long live poor King Appearances, to
whom all mankind bows the knee!

But we must hold him aloft very carefully, oh, my brother warriors! He
needs much "keeping up." He has no bones and sinews of his own, the poor
old flimsy fellow! If we take our hands from him, he will fall a heap
of worn-out rags, and the angry wind will whirl him away, and leave us
forlorn. Oh, let us spend our lives keeping him up, and serving him,
and making him great--that is, evermore puffed out with air and
nothingness--until he burst, and we along with him!

Burst one day he must, as it is in the nature of bubbles to burst,
especially when they grow big. Meanwhile, he still reigns over us, and
the world grows more and more a world of pretense and exaggeration
and lies; and he who pretends and exaggerates and lies the most
successfully, is the greatest of us all.

The world is a gingerbread fair, and we all stand outside our booths and
point to the gorgeous-colored pictures, and beat the big drum and brag.
Brag! brag! Life is one great game of brag!

"Buy my soap, oh ye people, and ye will never look old, and the hair
will grow again on yo