Odds And Ends Of Wit And Humour.

—from the BigloAV Papers , by Lowell"They didn ' t know everything down in Judee . " But the people who would introduce a representation of the Last Supper into a AvaxAvork exhibition , as described by Artemus Ward , Avould not scruple at makinsr free use of the most sacred

subjects in the course of conversation . Josh Billings says , "About the only difference between the poor and the ritch is this : the poor suffer misery , while the ritch have tu enjoy it , " The incongruity of mixing up quotations from Scripture and presenting them in an odd form

caunot fail to make the groundlings laugh , Avhilst it causes the judicious to grieve . But in the incongruity lies the humour , as in his saying , " Bee ye as wise as a sarpint , and as harmless as a chrve , ancl then if a felloAv comes a fooling round your

duve , yu can just set your sarpint at him . " The dreadful truth of some of his explanations of quotations comes home to one with greater force from the epigrammatic way in Avhich they are put . Instance this : — " Man Avas created a little loAver than the

angels , and has been gitten a little lower ever since ; " and this , " According to Scripter , that' lvill be just about as many kimmils in heaven as rich men . " * ' Robbers are like the rain : tha fall on the just and on the unjust . " " We are told that there warn't ennything maid in vain ; but I have thought that awl the time spent in manufacturing striped snaix and musketeers Avas wasted . " Some of his

deductions from old proverbs are very quaint and amusing . Take the folioAving as fair examples : —" Fust appearances are ced to be everything . —/ don ' t put all my faith into this saying ; I think oysters and claims , forinstance , willbear looking into . " "There is two things in this life for which we are

never fully prepared—and that is timns . ' ' Josh Billings deposes that " ignorance is bliss—ignorance of sawing wood , for instance . " That " a little learning is a dangerous thing . — £ 7 ws is as trim as it is common . " " Truth is stranger than fiction

— that is tew some folks . " " Honesty is the best policy—but dm ' t take my word for it ; try it . " " Familiarity breeds contemptthis is so ; just as soon as we get familiarised with castor He , for instance , we contempt it . " " Give the devil his due—but

be very careful , there ain ' t much due Mm . " " Tell the truth and shame the devil—I ' no lots ot people viho can shame the devil easy enough ; but the tother thing bothers them . " HOAV ridiculously odd are some of his proverbs : — " Matches may be made in

heaven—but they are sold down here . " " You may make a whissel out of a pig ' s tale—but if you du you'll find you ' ve spilte a very worthy tale and got a devilish poor whissel . " " Humin natur is the same all over the world "—except in New

England , and thar it ' s accordin' to sarcumstances . " I can , perhaps , best describe the peculiar idiosyncrasies of Artemus Ward ' s writings , by giving you one of them . Amongst his best are the " Octoroon" and " The

Shakers , but no doubt you have before heard these read at your entertainments , so I will give you one less knoAvn—Artemus Ward ' s "Autobiography , " with which I propose to commence the second part . [ Bro . Holmes then read the biography

, amidst the hearty laughter of the audience . ] The lecturer resumed : Dr . Oliver Wendell Holmes is a Avriter of quite another stamp . His admirers call him the Hood of America , v > Mch is vfliat we might describe as high fahdin . Alluding to the

frequent use of Scripture in a joking Avay so common amongst the American humourists , Mr . Hingston , in his introduction to Josh Billings , remarks : — "The Puritanical fashion of eliciting jokes from matters Avhich some minds Avould regard as

beyond the region of trifling , no more characterises the writings of Mr . Shaw ( J . B . ' s real name ) than it does those of any other Transatlantic humourist . The soldier of CromAvell , AVIIO used Biblical words in the com'ersation of eA ery-day use ,

became the New England settler , and carried his peculiarities of phraseology to the shores of Massachusetts . He took with hiin—to use the words of a recent essayist — ' the language - of his imaginary wrestlings with Satan to use in his wrestlings

with the difficulties and dangers of his adopted land , ' And the diction which the Puritan used has not altogether died out in the land Avhich he peopled . Much that would be thought to verge on profanit y in this country is regarded as perfectly reverent by the most orthodox of our