for ridicule
the right thing? Did I discuss Holy Writ? I did not: I concussed profane
scribble. Even the Doctor did not _discuss_; he only enunciated and
denunciated out of the mass of inferences which a mystical head has found
premises for in the Bible]."

M 40
O 70
R 100
G 6
N 50
----
266
[Hebrew: t]=[chi] 400

[That ill opinions are near relations of ill wishes, will be detected by
those who are on the look out. The following was taken down in a Scotch
Church by Mr. Cobden,[358] who handed it to a Roman friend of mine, for his
delectation (in 1855): "Lord, we thank thee that thou hast brought the Pope
into trouble; and we pray that thou wouldst be mercifully pleased to
increase the same."]

Here is a martyr who quarrels with his crown; a missionary who reviles his
persecutor: send him to New Zealand, and he would disagree with the Maoris
who ate him. Man of unilateral reciprocity! have you, who write to a
stranger with hints that that stranger and his wife are children of
perdition, the bad taste to complain of a facer in return? As James
Smith[359]--the Attorney-wit, not the Dock-cyclometer--said, or nearly
said,

"A pretty thing, forsooth!
Is he to burn, all scalding hot,
Me and my wife, and am I not
To job him out a tooth?"

{218}

Those who think parody vulgar will be pleased to substitute for the above a
quotation from Butler[360]:--

"There's nothing so absurd or vain
Or barbarous or inhumane,
But if it lay the least pretence
To piety and godliness,
Or tender-hearted conscience,
And zeal for gospel truths profess,--
Does sacred instantly commence,
And all that dare but question it are straight
Pronounced th' uncircumcised and reprobate,
As malefactors that escape and fly
Into a sanctuary for defence,
Must not be brought to justice thence,
Although their crimes be ne'er so great and high.
And he that dares presume to do't
Is sentenced and delivered up
To Satan that engaged him to't."

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST.

Of all the drolleries of controversy none is more amusing than the manner
in which those who provoke a combat expect to lay down the laws of
retaliation. You must not strike this way! you must not parry that way! If
you don't take care, we shall never meddle with you again! We were not
_prepared_ for such as this! Why did we have anything to do with such a
testy person? M. Jourdain must needs sh