A token that makes her shudder and shriek, MORAL. There are folks about town-to name no names— And over their tea, and muffins and crumpets, And whisper tales they could only have heard Through some such Diabolical Trumpets. Hazlitt, in his "Essay on Milton," says that the best way to answer his impugners is to take down his book and read to them. Assuredly, then, the best way to discuss the merits of a genius like Hood's is to confirm his admirers and instruct his strangers by the same process; and little more than this has been done in the present attempt to render full justice to his noble character, and honour to his lustrous talents. At the time, however, that I was indulging my own reminiscences of his productions it was a consolation to me that I was making him the herald of his own fame, a fame that will be registered with the good and the wise, the witty and the benevolent. I now bring my series of essays on the "Comic Writers of England" to a close. In selecting the subject I was led to it by the belief that it would afford some hours of relaxation and pleasant recreation to trace how richly our own country abounds in authors who may vie, as wits and humourists, with the most famous among those of other nations; and that we possess many who are distinguished by a fine comic vein, independently of their other qualifications. I believe that it would be no unprofitable search to explore these treasures of the imagination, and to indulge our own fancies for awhile with their sportive whimsicalities, that thus we might renew our estimate of the wealth we possess, and bring it forth for use and entertainment; for in the great cycle of events, and in the constant presence and pressure of novelty, old things come back to us with the aspect of youth, while I cannot but feel that many new things of the present age are stamped with the mark of antiquity. Re-fusion is the characteristic of much of our modern literature; it was the same in old Chaucer's day, for he says: Out of the oldè fieldès, as men saith, Com'th all this new corn from year to year; And out of oldè bookès, in good faith, Com'th all this new science that men lere. Thus have I, in my progress, reckoned some, at least, of our intellectual wealth, in the classic abundance of Ben Jonson; the fantastic luxuriance of Beaumont and Fletcher; the scalping and flaying of Butler; the polish and ease of Steele and Addison; the point and terrible power of Swift; the wanton gaieties of Wycherley; and the brilliancy, but heartlessness, of Congreve; the spirit, vivacity, and roguery of Vanburgh and Farquhar; the satiric accomplishments of Rochester, Marvell, Young, Gay, Churchill, and saucy Peter Pindar; the broad-sword sweep of Dryden ; and the poignant, rapierlike refinement of Pope; the profound heart-teaching of Hogarth. Then we have had the lively and mischievous plotting of Centlivre in her comedies; the good sense and perspicuity of Cibber; the buoyancy of Hoadley, Colman, and Garrick; the perfectly sweet nature of Goldsmith; the diamond-like wit of Sheridan; the truth to nature and subtlety of Fielding; and uncompromising broad humour of Smollett; with the eccentric originality of Sterne. Still descending, we noted the prodigal farce of Foote; the roaring fun of O'Keefe; the more chastened drollery of Murphy and Kenny; with the ridiculous situations of Peake. Again, in the present series of essays have been noticed the extravagance of the burlesque-writers, the ludicrous yet meaning touches of the caricaturists; the graceful mirth of the essayists, closing with the quaint, pithy, pregnant, and amusing sallies of Charles Lamb and Leigh Hunt; and, lastly, the multitudinous and surprising combinations of Thomas Hood. All these, in their turn, have now been reverted to, that we might behold the choicest of that comic power for which our England is so famous. In culling from this rich store I may, perhaps, say, in my own behalf, that care has been taken to select such passages for entertainment as should least jar with modern conventional ideas of the due limits to be observed in licence of expression, with this reservation, to bring the best things to remembrance has been my constant endeavour. To excite mere laughter has not been so much aimed at as to remind the reader of those passages that most fruitfully contain evidences of the genius that exists in true wit and humour. If I have fulfilled my task (which, from its nature, presented difficulties that will readily be comprehended, and, I am sure, will as readily be extenuated) if, I say, I have fulfilled my task with but half as good a result as the zeal with which it has been pursued was earnest; if I have but procured to my readers a reflex of the pleasure which I have myself enjoyed in collecting and arranging these various garlands of comic genius for their delectation, it will tend to console me for the necessity of at length coming to a conclusion, and of uttering the unpleasing word-" Farewell!" MOUNT ÆTNA. (VIRGIL'S ENEID.)* ORTH from the bosom of the distant sea The mighty moaning of the Ocean deep, By winds unmoved, while Ætna thunders nigh From that volcano breaks the bursting cloud With horror black, and bright with balls of fire, That lick with tongues of flame the shining stars. Fitful and far the fierce volcano flings The vomit of its entrails torn, and rocks, Huge rocks, that melt in masses on the air, While moans the mountain from its boiling breast. T. H. L. LEARY, D.C.L. B. iii. v. 570-589. THE POSSIBILITIES OF A FEW weeks ago nervous Britain was thrown into a state of wild excitement, by the announcement that a comet was on its way towards our system, and would encounter the earth full tilt on the 12th of the coming August. The statement came from sober Switzerland; it was reported to have been made upon the authority of an astronomer of high repute; there was in it some slight internal evidence of circumstantiality-enough to commend it to those not deeply versed in astronomic lore; and so, with that faith in astronomical predictions which the general accuracy of such forecasts has inspired, the public, or a very large section of it, accepted the warning as reliable in so far as the actual encounter was concerned, and set itself wondering what might be the possible consequences of the threatened collision. According to their lights folks were reassured or doubted, or were alarmed, or were indifferent. Those who had learnt to regard comets as airy nothings treated the report with contempt; those who retained the ancient and classical dread of a bearded star were dispirited, and in some cases addressed themselves to astronomical authorities in the hope of receiving information ex cathedrâ to allay their fears. They were not disappointed; the authorities were enabled to contradict the alarming report on all its essential points, and to offer a feasible suggestion as to the harmless circumstances out of which, by enormous exaggeration, it had been concocted. The reasonable explanation was that the canard had been generated from the facts that the earth encounters a meteor stream on or about the date referred to, and that meteors are in some manner allied to comets, perhaps very intimately, inasmuch as certain meteor streams have been discovered to occupy and course around the orbits of certain comets; and it has even been surmised that what is solid in a comet is merely a swarm of meteoric particles. In the actual case in question it is known that a comet which itself passed in sight of us in the year 1862 has its path strewed with meteoric particles, as with debris that it has left behind it. The earth intersects this path every 11th of August, and some of these particles then plunge into our atmosphere, and are kindled into visibility, giving rise to the luminous meteors of that date, which have long been known in tradition-loving Ireland as St. Lawrence's fiery tears. So that on that critical date we do encounter the trail (not the tail, for comets do not trail their tails) of a comet-with what harmless consequences we all know; and it is conceivable that the report to which we have alluded grew out of some simple announcement of this circumstance. It may be suspected that since each year we cross the comet's path we may one day fall foul of the body itself: so we may, but it will not be this year, nor in the life-time of any one who now reads these remarks, for the last approach was in the year 1862, and, since the comet's period of revolution round its vast orbit is 113 years, it will not come near us again till the year 1975, and the odds against the probability of an encounter even then are enormous. We have, therefore, little to fear from that comet, though we do actually run across the path it traverses. But Kepler declared that space was as full of comets as the sea is of fishes; and, considering the infinity of space, his metaphor may not be so far overdrawn as, apart from this consideration, we might be disposed to regard it. Arago, indeed, endorsed the Keplerian assertion so far as to estimate that the number of cometary bodies which in their orbital journeys pass through the solar system amounts to over seventeen millions. Clearly this plenitude must induce some risk of an earthand-comet collision, for we know of no provision of nature for warding off such an encounter, though we may suppose provisions to exist for rendering it innocuous if by any chance it should occur. But the chances of occurrence are feeble indeed. The illustrious French astronomer whose name we have just mentioned calculated the probabilities of an encounter for a hypothetical comet quarter the diameter of the earth in size, and supposed to approach the sun within the earth's orbit; and he found that the odds against the meeting were 281 millions to one. The assumed small diameter nucleus, or supposed solid of the comet referred of course to the part; the nebulous surrounding which commonly streams off to form the customary tail might have a vastly greater size, and the probabilities of encountering it would be correspondingly increased. But we may dismiss at once any apprehensions of danger from a swish of a comet's caudal appendage, for there is little doubt that we have repeatedly received this, the latest instance having occurred but a few years ago. The great comet of 1861 is fully believed to have dragged his tail over us on Sunday, the 30th of June in that year, when we were only two-thirds the tail's length from the nucleus. This fact was first deduced by calculation, and it has received |