wish to heaven it were impossible!"

Americans are famous, and sometimes infamous, for their devotion to the
grotesque in humor. Yet, a conspicuous example of such amusing absurdity
was given by Thackeray, who made reference to an oyster so large that it
took two men to swallow it whole.

It is undeniable that the British are fond of puns. It is usual to sneer
at the pun as the lowest form of wit. Such, alas! it too often is, and
frequently, as well, it is a form of no wit at all. But the pun may
contain a very high form of wit, and may please either for its
cleverness, or for its amusing quality, or for the combination of the
two. Naturally, the really excellent pun has always been in favor with
the wits of all countries. Johnson's saying, that a man who would make a
pun would pick a pocket, is not to be taken too seriously. It is not
recorded that Napier ever "pinched a leather," but he captured Scinde,
and in notifying the government at home of this victory he sent a
dispatch of one word, "_Peccavi_" ("I have sinned"). The pun is of the
sort that may be appreciated intellectually for its cleverness, while
not calculated to cause laughter. Of the really amusing kind are the
innumerable puns of Hood. He professed himself a man of many sorrows,
who had to be a lively Hood for a livelihood. His work abounds in an
ingenious and admirable mingling of wit and humor. For example:

"Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war's alarms,
But a cannon ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms.

"And as they took him off the field,
Cried he, 'Let others shoot,
'For here I leave my second leg,
'And the Forty-Second Foot.'"

It is doubtless true that it would require a surgical operation to get a
joke into some particular Scotchman's head. But we have some persons of
the sort even in our own country. Many of the British humorists have
been either Scotch or Irish, and it is rather profitless to attempt
distinctions as to the humorous sense of these as contrasted with the
English. Usually, stories of thrift and penuriousness are told of the
Scotch without doing them much injustice, while bulls are designated
Irish with sufficient reasonableness. In illustration of the Scotch
character, we may cite the story of the visitor to Aberdeen, who was
attacked by three footpads. He fought them desperately, and inflicted
severe injuries. When at last he had been subdued and