The water, which they beat, to follow faster, For her own person It beggar'd all description: she did lie 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, 2. Sandy city streets Piled up full of lumber; Buildings going up, Numbers without number; With the bricks they bear; Through each thoroughfare. 3. Every body goes Fast as he can dash on; Never minding clothes, 4. City of the West, Built up in a minute, 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, The whizzing planets shrink before Ah! well may regal orbs burn blue, Ten million cubic miles of head! 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'? 3. I saw a tutor take his tube, The Comet's course to spy; I heard a scream,-the gathered rays Pop cracked the guns! whiz flew the balls! 4. I saw a poet dip a scroll I read upon the warping back 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; They answered not,—but all the while 6. I saw a roasting pullet sit I saw a cripple scorch his hand. I saw nine geese upon the wing And every mother's gosling fell 7. I saw the ox that browsed the grass The herbage in his shrinking jaws I saw huge fishes, boiled to rags, And thoughts of supper crossed my soul;- 8. Strange sights! strange sounds! oh fearful dream! Its memory haunts me still,— The steaming sea, the crimson glare, That wreathed each wooded hill: LESSON LXXV. A DREAM OF LUXURY. BEN JONSON. I WILL have all my beds blown' up, not stuffed'. I'll have of perfume, vapored 'bout the room, My footboy shall eat pheasants; I myself will have 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 |