have deduced the law of gravitation. How profoundly would he nib a
pen--with what deliberation would he wet a wafer!--

But it is time to close--night's wheels are rattling fast over me--it
is proper to have done with this solemn mockery.

Reader, what if I have been playing with thee all this
while--peradventure the very _names_, which I have summoned up before
thee, are fantastic--insubstantial--like Henry Pimpernel, and old John
Naps of Greece:--

Be satisfied that something answering to them has had a being. Their
importance is from the past.

[Footnote 1: I passed by the walls of Balclutha, and they were
desolate.--Ossian.]




OXFORD IN THE VACATION


Casting a preparatory glance at the bottom of this article--as the
wary connoisseur in prints, with cursory eye (which, while it reads,
seems as though it read not,) never fails to consult the _quis
sculpsit_ in the corner, before he pronounces some rare piece to be a
Vivares, or a Woollet--methinks I hear you exclaim, Reader, _Who is
Elia?_