Professions too are no more to be found
Professional; and there is nought to cull
Of folly's fruit; for though your fools
abound,

They're barren and not worth the pains to
pull.
Society is now one polish'd horde,
Form'd of two mighty tribes, the Bores
and Bored.

But from being farmers, we turn gleaners, gleaning

The scanty but right-well thrash'd ears of truth;

And, gentle reader! when you gather meaning,

You may be Boaz, and I-modest Ruth. Further I'd quote, butScripture, intervening, Forbids. A great impression in my youth Was made by Mrs. Adams, where she cries, "That Scriptures out of church are blasphemies."

But when we can, we glean in this vile age
Of chaff, although our gleanings be not grist.
I must not quite omit the talking sage,
Kit-Cat, the famous conversationist,
Who, in his common-place book, had a page
Prepared each morn for evenings. "List,
oh list!"-

"Alas, poor Ghost!"-What unexpected woes
Await those who have studied their bon-
mots!

Firstly, they must allure the conversation
By many windings to their clever clinch;
And secondly, must let slip no occasion,
Nor bate (abate) their hearers of an inch,
But take an ell-and make a great sensation,
If possible; and thirdly, never flinch
When some smart talker puts them to the
test,

But seize the last word, which no doubt's
the best.

Lord Henry and his lady were the hosts; The party we have touch'd on were the guests:

The ladies some rouged, some a little pale-
Met the morn as they might. If fine, they
rode,

Or walk'd; if foul, they read, or told a tale,
Sung,or rehearsed the last dance from abroad;
Discuss'd the fashion which might next
prevail;

Their table was a board to tempt even ghosts
To pass the Styx for more substantial feasts.
I will not dwell upon ragoûts or roasts,
Albeit all human history attests,
That happiness for man the hungry sinner!
SinceEve ate apples,much depends on dinner. To make each correspondent a new debtor.

Witness the lands which "flow'd with milk

and honey,"

And settled bonnets by the newest code; Or cramm'd twelve sheets into one little letter,

For some had absent lovers, all had friends. The earth has nothing like a She-epistle, Held out unto the hungry Israelites : And hardly Heaven--because it never ends. To this we have added since, the love of I love the mystery of a female missal,

money,

Which, like a creed, ne'er says all it intends,

A sleep without dreams, after a rough day In this our party; polish'd, smooth, and cold,' Of toil, is what we covet most; and yet

A slight glance thrown on men of every

station.

If you have nought else, here's at least satiety

Both in performance and in preparation; And though these lines should only line portmanteaus,

Trade will be all the better for these Cantos.

The portion of this world which I at present
Have taken up to fill the following sermon,
Is one of which there's no description recent:
The reason why, is easy to determine:
Although it seems both prominent and
pleasant,

There is a sameness in its gems and ermine,

A dull and family likeness through all ages,
Of no great promise for poetic pages.

With much to excite, there's little to exalt;
Nothing that speaks to all men and all times;
A sort of varnish over every fault;
A kind of common-place,even in their crimes:
Factitious passions, wit without much salt,
A want of that true nature which sublimes
Whate'er it shows with truth; a smooth
monotony

Of character, in those at least who have
got any.

Sometimes, indeed, like soldiers off parade, They break their ranks and gladly leave the drill;

But then the roll-call draws them back

afraid,

And they must be or seem what they were: And therefore what I throw off is ideal— Lower'd, leaven'd, like a history of Free

still

Doubtless it is a brilliant masquerade;
But when of the first sight you have had
your fill,

It palls-at least it did so upon me,
This Paradise of Pleasure and Ennui.

masons;

Which bears the same relation to the real,
As Captain Parry's voyage may do to Jason's.
The grand Arcanum's not for men to see all;
My music has some mystic diapasons;
And there is much which could not be
appreciated

When we have made our love, and gamed In any manner by the uninitiated.