of the mouth in these unfledged
practitioners; or whether Nature, sensible that she had
mingled too much of bitter wood in the lot of these raw
victims, caused to grow out of the earth her sassafras for a
sweet lenitive; but so it is, that no possible taste or
odour to the senses of a young chimney-sweeper can convey a
delicate excitement comparable to this mixture. Being
penniless, they will yet hang their black heads over the
ascending steam, to gratify one sense if possible, seemingly
no less pleased than those domestic animals--cats--when they
purr over a new-found sprig of valerian. There is something
more in these sympathies than philosophy can inculcate.

In this essay also we have an example--one of how many!--of Lamb's
happiness in hitting upon an illustration, even though it be of the
ludicrous; mentioning the wonderful white of the sweep-boy's teeth he
adds, "It is, as when

'A sable cloud
Turns forth her silver lining on the night.'"

"A Dissertation upon Roast Pig" is perhaps the most widely known of
all the essays of Elia. Its delightful drollery, its very revelling in
the daintiness of sucking-pig, its wonderfully rich literary
presentation, its deliberate acceptance of wild improbability as
historic basis, all unite to give it special place in the regard of
readers. The theme is of course familiar. It is that of a small
Chinese boy playing with fire who burnt down his father's flimsy hut
so that a whole litter of piglings was roasted in the conflagration.
The boy touched one of the incinerated little ones to feel if it were
alive; burnt his fingers and applied them to his mouth. His father
returned and did the same, and thus roast sucking-pig became a new
dish. Lamb plays with his subject with an inimitable mock earnestness.

Our ancestors were nice in their method of sacrificing these
tender victims. We read of pigs whipt to death with
something of a shock, as we hear of any other obsolete
custom. The age of discipline is gone by, or it would be
curious to inquire (in a philosophical light merely) what
effect this process might have towards intenerating and
dulcifying a substance, naturally so mild and dulcet as the
flesh of young pigs. It looks like refining a violet. Yet we
should be cautious, while we condemn the inhumanity, how we
censure the wisdom of the practice