As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke,1 When plundering herds assail their byke;2 As open pussie's mortal foes, As eager runs the market-crowd, So Maggie runs, the witches follow, Wi' mony an eldritch skreech and hollow. Ah, Tam! ah, Tam! thou'll get thy fairin! In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin! Whene'er to drink you are inclin'd, FROM THE "LINES TO A LOUSE." The vera topmost, tow'ring height I wad na been surpris'd to spy How daur ye do't? In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin! hale, But left behind her ain gray tail; Ilk man and mother's son, tak heed; 1 Bustle, O Jenny, dinna toss your head, The blastie's' makin! O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us 2 Hive. It is a well-known fact that witches, or any evil spirits have no power to follow a poor wight any farther than the middle of the next running stream. It may be proper likewise to mention to the benighted traveller, that when he falls in with bogles, whatever danger may be in his going forward, there is much more hazard in turning back. R. B. • Effort. An old-fashioned head-dress. Ribbon-ends. 7 Flannel vest. A bonnet, named after Lunardi, whose balloon made him notorious in Scotland about 1785. The shrivelled dwarf. SAMUEL BUTLER. [From Hudibras.] THE LEARNING OF HUDIBRAS. He was in logic a great critic, Profoundly skill'd in analytic; He could distinguish and divide A hair 'twixt south and south-west side; On either which he would dispute, Confute, change hands, and still confute. He'd undertake to prove, by force And rooks committee-men and trus tees. He'd run in debt by disputation, In mood and figure he would do. Which made some think, when he The ignorant for current took 'em; He would have used no other ways. His mouth, but out there flew a Could take the size of pots of ale; trope: And when he happened to break off And tell what rules he did it by: For all a rhetorician's rules In loftiness of sound, was rich; Like fustian heretofore on satin. Resolve, by signs and tangents, straight, If bread or butter wanted weight; And wisely tell what hour o' th' day The clock does strike, by algebra. Beside he was a shrewd philosopher, And had read ev'ry text and gloss over. Whate'er the crabbed'st author hath, He understood by implicit faith: Whatever sceptic could inquire for, For ev'ry why he had a wherefore; Knew more than forty of them do, As far as words and terms could go: All which he understood by rote, And, as occasion serv'd, would quote No matter whether right or wrong, They might be either said or sung. His notions fitted things so well, That which was which he could not tell But oftentimes mistook the one For th' other, as great clerks have done. He could reduce all things to acts, And knew their natures by abstracts; Where entity and quiddity, The ghosts of defunct bodies fly, Where truth in person does appear, Like words congeal'd in northern air. He knew what's what, and that's as high As metaphysic wit can fly. [From Hudibras.] More peevish, cross, and splenetic, Than dog distract, or monkey sick; That with more care keep holy-day The wrong, than others the right way: Compound for sins they are inclined to, By damning those they have no mind to: Still so perverse and opposite, As if they worshipped God for spite. THE BIBLICAL KNOWLEDGE AND Another, nothing else allow. RELIGION OF HUDIBRAS. He knew the seat of Paradise, it Below the moon, or else above it: What Adam dreamt of, when his bride Came from her closet in his side; When they throw out and miss the matter. For his religion, it was fit And prove their doctrine orthodox A sect whose chief devotion lies All piety consists therein In them, in other men all sin. age FROM "NOTHING TO WEAR." NOTHING TO WEAR! Now, as this is a true ditty, I do not assert this, you know, is between us That she's in a state of absolute nudity, Like Powers' Greek Slave or the Medici Venus; But I do mean to say, I have heard her declare, When at the same moment she had on a dress Which cost five hundred dollars, and not a cent less, And jewelry worth ten times more, I should guess, That she had not a thing in the wide world to wear! I should mention just here, that out of Miss Flora's Two hundred and fifty or sixty adorers, I had just been selected as he who should throw all The rest in the shade, by the gracious bestowal On myself, after twenty or thirty rejections, Of those fossil remains which she called her “affections," And flirt when I like-now, stop, don't you speak And you must not come here more than twice in the week, Or talk to me either at party or ball, But always be ready to come when I call; So don't prose to me about duty and stuff, If we don't break this off, there will be time enough For that sort of thing; but the bargain must be That, as long as I choose, I am perfectly free, For this is a kind of engagement, Well, having thus wooed Miss M'Flimsey and gained her, With the silks, crinolines, and hoops that contained her, I had, as I thought, a contingent remainder At least in the property, and the best right To appear as its escort by day and by night; And it being the week of the Stuckups' grand ball, Their cards had been out a fortnight or so, And set all the Avenue on the tiptoe, I considered it only my duty to call, And see if Miss Flora intended to go. I found her -as ladies are apt to be found, When the time intervening between the first sound Of the bell and the visitor's entry is shorter Than usual-I found; I won't say I caught her, Intent on the pier-glass, undoubtedly meaning To see if perhaps it did n't need cleaning. She turned as I entered-"Why Harry, you sinner, I thought that you went to the Flashers' to dinner!" |