The water, which they beat, to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.

For her own person

It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion (cloth of gold, of tissue),
O'er picturing that Venus, where we see
The fancy out-work nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-color'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid', did'.

2.

LESSON LXXIII.

CITY OF THE WEST.

Trochaic measure. (See p. 329.) A San Francisco Ballad. [See, also, "GROWTH OF CALIFORNIA," Lesson XIV.]

1. CITY of the West,

Built up in a minute,

Hurry, hurry, hurry,
Every thing within it :
Every nook and corner
Filled to overflowing;
Like a locomotive,
Every body going!

2. Sandy city streets

Piled up full of lumber;

Buildings going up,

Numbers without number;
Even hodmen hurry

With the bricks they bear;
Wagons thunder on

Through each thoroughfare.

3. Every body goes

Fast as he can dash on;

Never minding clothes,
Etiquette or fashion;
Dry or muddy season,
Rainy day or sunny,
Every body driving
Bargains to make money.

4. City of the West,

Built up in a minute,
In a business bustle,
Every body in it:
On a race with time,
Fast as he can go,-
Every body thinks
Telegraphing slow!

LESSON LXXIV.

THE COMET.

[The following literary extravaganza is a choice specimen of humorous hyperbole.] Iambic measure.-OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

1. The Comet'! He is on his way,
And singing as he flies;

The whizzing planets shrink before
The spectre of the skies:

Ah! well may regal orbs burn blue,
And satellites turn pale;

Ten million cubic miles of head!
Ten billion leagues of tail!

2. And what would happen to the land', And how would look the sea',

If in the bearded devil's path

Our earth should chance to be'?
Full hot and high the sun would boil,
Full red the forests gleam;
Methought I saw and heard it all
In a dyspeptic dream!

3. I saw a tutor take his tube,

The Comet's course to spy;

I heard a scream,-the gathered rays
Had stewed the tutor's eye;
I saw a fort, the soldiers all
Were armed with goggles green;

Pop cracked the guns! whiz flew the balls!
Bang went the magazine!

4. I saw a poet dip a scroll
Each moment in a tub,

I read upon the warping back
"The Dream of Beelzebub;"
He could not see his verses burn,
Although his brain was fried,
And ever and anon he bent

To wet them as they dried.

5. I saw the scalding pitch run down The crackling, sweating pines; And streams of smoke, like water-spouts,

Burst through the rumbling mines;
I asked the firemen why they made
Such noise about the town;

They answered not,—but all the while
The brakes went up and down.

6. I saw a roasting pullet sit
Upon a baking egg;

I saw a cripple scorch his hand.
Extinguishing his leg;

I saw

nine geese upon the wing
Toward the frozen pole,

And every mother's gosling fell
Crisped to a crackling coal.

7. I saw the ox that browsed the grass
Writhe in the blistering rays;

The herbage in his shrinking jaws
Was all a fiery blaze:

I saw huge fishes, boiled to rags,
Bob through the bubbling brine;

And thoughts of supper crossed my soul;-
I had been rash at mine.

8. Strange sights! strange sounds! oh fearful dream! Its memory haunts me still,—

The steaming sea, the crimson glare,

That wreathed each wooded hill:
Stranger! if thou thy reeling brain
Such midnight visions sweep,
Spare, spare, oh spare thine evening meal,
And sweet shall be thy sleep!

LESSON LXXV.

A DREAM OF LUXURY.

BEN JONSON.

I WILL have all my beds blown' up, not stuffed'.
Down is too hard;-and then my oval room
Filled with such pictures as Tiberius took
From Elephantis, and dull Ar'e tine
But coldly imitated.—My mists

I'll have of perfume, vapored 'bout the room,
To lose ourselves in; and my baths, like pits
To fall into, from whence we will come forth,
And roll us dry in gossamer and roses;-
My meat shall all come in Indian shells,
Dishes of agate, set in gold, and studded
With emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies;
The tongues of
carp, dormice, and camel's heels
Boiled in the spirit of sol and dissolvèd pearl;
And I will eat these broths with spoons of amber,
Headed with diamond and carbuncle.

My footboy shall eat pheasants; I myself will have
The beards of barbels served instead of salads.

CHARACTER, AND FORMS OF WIT.

[Analysis.-1. Indefiniteness of ridicule. The emotion to which it gives rise. What it does. What we deride. What we ridicule.-2. Objects that excite to laughter. What objects are mirthful only. Why difficult to decide what objects are really mirthful. The attempt to excite laughter in others.-3. What is Wit. Where it may be found. Why a delicate instrument to handle.-4. Why difficult of illustration. What it needs. Two divisions of it.-5. The pun described. A pun by Curran.-6. Judge Story and Edward Everett.-7. The pun of the fire-fly.-8. The wit of proverbs. Serious puns. Example from Doddridge. Humorous poetry.-9. Wit in the thought. In what it consists.-10. Burlesque.-11. Example from Burke.-12. From Pope.-13. Resources of wit. Humor. Sarcasm. Satire. Satires of Horace and Juvenal.-14. An unladylike sarcasm.-15. The repartee. Example of a serious repartee.-16. A repartee by Voltaire.-17. Irony. What it is. What it does.-18. Spoken irony. Written irony. Example of irony.-19. Irony, by Elijah the prophet.-20. Scripture irony, closing with a solemn appeal.-21. Caution in the use of ridicule, wit, etc. The fate of wits,-illustrated by a simile.-22. The too free use of small wit.-23. The diversions of Bantering and Raillery often purchased too dearly.-24 and 25. Allegorical illustrations from Lacon.]

1. RIDICULE is so indefinite in its objects, and has so many phases of expression, that it can not properly be called a figure of speech, nor is it easy of definition: but the emotion to which it gives rise is well known; and it uses, at times, all figures for the attainment of its object. It is calculated to excite laughter mingled with contempt, and thus corresponds nearly to derision; although we deride persons only, but ridicule both persons and things. We ridicule the man; but we deride both the man and his performances.

2. Certain objects, and certain kinds of composition, excite to laughter, without aiming at ridicule; while others are both mirthful and ludicrous. Those objects which are mirthful only are slight, little, or trivial; for we laugh at nothing that is of real importance to ourselves or to others. And yet it is often difficult to distinguish what objects we may count upon as being really mirthful; for all men are not equally affected by risible objects, nor the same man at