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more enemies than the known writer of epigrams.

Yet, there have been minds powerful and christian enough to forgive injuries of this kind, and I have pleasure in relating the following anecdote. It is in the field of epigram that academical students of poetical talents usually try their first strength; and some of the best epigrams which I ever read were written by Cambridge scholars, who have since distinguished themselves in the higher branches of literature.* A member of one of the colleges, who was well known for his wit, and who, though no longer a student, was a resident at Cambridge, wrote an epigram on the late Bishop Watson, then residing there also, which was handed about and greatly admired.

Soon after, the epigram-writer, being desirous of obtaining a particular office in the University, called to solicit the vote of the bishop. "What, Sir!" exclaimed the prelate," do you come to ask me to vote for you? Answer me, Sir, did you not write a certain epigram?" The poor wit blushed, stammered, and with difficulty confessed that he did. "Very well, Sir; very well," returned the bishop; "but it does not matter whether you did or not, I think you fit for the place; you shall, therefore, have my vote."

It is gratifying to write, and it is pleasant, no doubt, to read a good epigram; but most persons, I trust, had rather have acted like

Particularly Archdeacon Wr-.

Bishop Watson, on this occasion, than have written like his satirist.

I shall now say in recapitulation, that EYEINFLICTERS are practical detractors, and that I have made this noun out of a verb, "to inflict the eye upon a person," used by Dr. Parr.

That EYE-INFLICTERS seek the kindred glances of some near relative or intimate friend and then convey the look of satirical meaning backwards and forwards from one eye to the other, like a battledore and shuttlecock.

That there is another species of detraction connected with eye-infliction,-that of shrugs, winks, and sighs.

That any person by this process can stamp a narrator of a story with the brand of falsehood, and what is this but detraction?

That MIMICKS are guilty of both kinds of detraction-detraction acted as well as spoken. That mimickry is sometimes, I own, no more than an imitation, and would not offend even its object; but that this is mimickry on its good behaviour.

That the CARICATURIST not of fools but of folly ranks only a grade below the satirists in prose and in verse, and that such a caricaturist was the late Sir Henry Bunbury, and is George Cruikshank.

Lastly, that EPIGRAMMATISTS are even more pleasing detractors than caricaturists, and like them more wounding than mimicks or mimickry; as epigrams, as well as caricatures, endure and may be handled about.

CHAPTER XI.

ON THE VOCABULARY OF DETRACTION.

HAVING defined its various kinds, I shall now give what I call the Vocabulary of Detraction.

I have found by experience how useful it is to watch the effect of the words we use on ourselves, and observe how much our feelings are under the power even of our own tones and language. I have been surprised to find how much the utterance of a severe word has increased my feeling of resentment towards offending individuals, and how entirely my anger has been subdued when I have unintentionally, perhaps, mentioned them soon after, in words and tones of compassion.

If this be true, those who wish to live in amity with their neighbours and fellow-citizens, should be careful to avoid injurious language respecting them even in joke; for it is impossible to feel proper respect and esteem for our associates, of whom we accustom ourselves to speak with nicknames, or with any depreciating epithet; such epithets as are found in the following list.

The fellow, the old fellow, mother such a

one, and old mother such a one, the old girl, the old maid, and that Mr. Such a one, or that man, or Miss Such a one, or that Tom so and so, or Mary so and so, and that thingimy such a one, thingumbob, or that what's the man's name, or that what's the woman's name? or the quiz, and other lowering expressions, which, whenever or by whomsoever uttered, are uttered, I venture to assert, in the true spirit of detraction. It may be objected, that some of these expressions, especially the terms "mother such a one, " and "old mother such a one," are too vulgar to be used by any one in a decent situation in life; but I have heard them from the lips of those who would indignantly repel the charge of vulgarity; but let their rank in society be ever so high, all persons who are under the influence of bad temper, and the wish to indulge in petty detraction, are, for the time being at least, reduced to the level of the vulgar, and liable to indulge in vulgar phraseology.

There is nothing absolutely vulgar in the use of the relative"that" before a name; but I know no word so applied more detracting and contemptuous. There is nothing defined in the idea which it gives; it is only censure by implication; still, I can conceive no surer way of lowering the person spoken of, and at a very cheap rate, as it costs the person speaking no expenditure of wit, judgment, power of reasoning, or discrimination. It may also be considered as a throwing down of the satirical gauntlet, and as the provoker to detraction in

others and a that before a name is almost as degrading as an alias after it, except that the first is a sort of indistinct degradation, and the other conveys a charge of specific delinquency. "The fellow" also bespeaks a decided sense of superiority in the person speaking to the person spoken of; and though a wicked fellow, and a good for nothing fellow are terms of a more seriously calumniating inference, yet they are not so contemptuous as the simple expression of "the fellow," if spoken otherwise than in pleasantry; and if one changes the "the" for the "that" a very easy and common change, language has scarcely a combination of words more capable of giving a severe wound to a fellow-creature's respectability. "Ah! he is a sad chap! and he is quite a quiz!" are two phrases much used in the grammar of detraction, and are common all over England, in the vulgar tongue, though neither "chap" nor ❝ quiz" are words in the dictionary. Iknow not the origin of either word from any good authority; but, as calling a man a chap implies usually that he is but a sorry fellow, I am inclined to believe it is derived from the French word, échappé, escaped, meaning a man who has narrowly escaped hanging; and I think un échappé du diable is a French phrase, equivalent to our scape grace. A quiz, or a person of ludicrous and particular appearance and manners, is a word of recent invention, and I should suppose that it is a jumble of queer and exquis, or exquisite; however, be that as it may, neither chap nor quiz, any more

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