Odds And Ends Of Wit And Humour.

friends on the other side of the water . " Mr . Kingston adds , "I have heard the Rev . Henry Ward Beecher say things in his pulpit at Brooklyn Avhich would scarcely have been tolerated if uttered in Exeter Hall . "

Before we quite leave the American authors I should haA-e liked just to introduce one of Dr . Holmes' graver pieces ; it is called " The Last Leaf , " there is a mixture of humour and sadness , and a quainfcness about it that reminds one forcibl y of

Hood—had space permitted , but it does not . His Avit is more polished than the others just mentioned , and there is not that irreverent handling of Scripture Avhich they present . It is said that were it not for the satirists

of America , of whom Josh Billings is one , as well as a humourist , it is difficult to imagine to what ludicrous eccentricities the people Avould lend themselves . Too self-sufficient to listen to argument , they are keenly sensitive to ridicule , ancl a little

of Josh Billings , or 0 . VV . Holmes , is more effective in doing good than the best sermon a foreign friend could preach them . Burlesquing their braggadocio style has done a great deal of good in the United States . The genius of hifalutinas the

, Americans call it ( the Avord is derived , I have read , from hyphenlooping ) has received many mortal wounds lately from the hands of the satirist , and good results must

ensue . Three very good specimens of Dr . Holmes ' s style are "The Music Grinder , " " The Spectre Pig , " and the " Stethoscope Song , " all very much in Hood ' s manner , but not so good . Miss Mitfordthe authoress of "Our

, Village , " is a great admirer of the Dr . " I hardly know , " she says , in her " Recollections of Literary Life , " " any one so original as Dr . Holmes . For him Ave can find no living prototype ; to trace his footsteps we must travel back as far as Pope

or Dryden , and to my mind it would be Avell if some of our own bards Avould take the same journey , provided always it produced the same result . Lofty , poignant , graceful , grand , high of thought , and dear of word , we could fancy ourselves reading some pungent page of 'Absolom and Achitophel , ' or of the ' Moral Epistles , ' if it were not for the pervading nationality ,

which , excepting Wlnttier , American poets , have generally wanted , and for that true reflection of the manners and follies of the age without Avhich satire would fail alike of its purpose and its name . " There are various kinds of Avit , as you all know—such as

satireepigramsar-, , casm , repartee , parody , irony . Of quite a different character to the author ' s I have quoted are the Irish and French , AVIIO are perhaps the most witty people , though I question whether our own country cannot furnish as great humourists .

Moliere ' s writings are full of Avit . Talleyrand was the author of some wonderfully Avitty speeches . Many of the readers of the MASONIC MAGAZINE Avill

remember one—that " language ivas given to us to conceal our thoughts ; " the very speech of a crafty diplomatist . How expressive , too , was his saying that " Ireland was the land where tAvo and two made

five" which gives in feAv words a very good general idea of the Irish habit of exaggeration . "She is unsupportable , '' said Talleyrand , Avith marked emphasis , of a certain well-known lady , but added , " it is her only defect . " " Ah , I feel the torments of hell" said a person whose life had

, been supposed to be somewhat of the loosest . " What , already 1 " answered Talleyrand . This reply ( Avhich is dreadfully severe , ancl some mig ht think rather wicked ) , is , after all , not original . I believe the Cardinal de Retz ' s physician is

said to have made a similar exclamation on a like occasion . A gentleman in company Avas one day making a someAvhat zealous eulogy of his mother ' s beauty , dwelling upon the topic at uncalled for length , he himself having certainly inherited no

portion of that kind under the marriage of his parents . " It Avas your father then , apparently , AVIIO may not have been very well favoured , " Avas Talleyrand's dry remark , which at once released the circle from the subject . This reminds me of a

similar repartee attributed to Archbishop Whately before he attained the dignity of the mitre . He Avas dining in company with a conceited young officer , an aidede-camp , I believe , at the Viceregal Court , and the conversation turned upon clergymen . " Oh , " said the coxcomb , " it is thought the fool of the family should go into the Church . " "Evidently your father