a Serpents,' 'Krakens,' and 'Mermaids'--abounding in 'Maeelstroms' and
_sunken_ islands, and traversed by 'Phantom Ships' and 'Flying Dutchmen'
in perpetual search for some 'lost Atlantis;'--all well-attested
incredibilities, certified to by the 'affidavits of respectable
eye-witnesses,' and, we might add, by 'intelligent contrabands,'--and
all in strict conformity with the convenient aphorism '_Credo quia
impossibile est_.' They are ever ready to bestow their amazement upon a
fresh miracle as soon as the present has had its day--like the man who,
being landed at some distance by the explosion of a juggler's
pyrotechnics, rubbed his eyes open, and exclaimed, '_I wonder what the
fellow will do next!_'

If a steamboat explodes her boiler, or the walls of a factory fall,
burying hundreds in the ruins, their hearts--rendered callous by the
constant stream of cold air pouring in through their _ever-open
mouths_--are not shocked at the calamity, but they wonder if it was
_insured_!

The increase of population in this country affords a most prolific and
inexhaustible fund for statistical astonishment, as an interlude to the
entertainment, while something more appalling is being prepared.

The portentous omens so often relied on by the credulous believers in
signs, have so frequently proved 'dead failures,' that one would suppose
these votaries would at length become disheartened. But this seems not
to be the case--like a quack doctor when his patient dies, their
audacity is equal to any emergency, and, with the elasticity of india
rubber, they come out of a 'tight squeeze' with undiminished rotundity.
With _stupid_ amazement, hair all erect, and ears likewise, they pass
through life as through a museum, ready to exclaim with Dominie Sampson
at all _they_ cannot understand, 'Pro--di--gi--ous!'

It matters little, perhaps, in what form this principle is exhibited,
while it exists and flourishes in undiminished exuberance. Thus says
Glendower:

'At my nativity
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets; and, at my birth,
The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shak'd like a coward.

_Hotspur._ Why so it would have done
At the same season, if your mother's cat had
But kittened, though yourself had ne'er been born.'

Glendower naturally enough flouts this rather impertinent comment, and
'repeats the story of his birth' with still greater improvements, till
Hot