hang on by the mere beam-ends, and coherency of old carpentry,
though in a sloping direction, and depend there till certain poor
rusty nails and worm-eaten dovetailings give way:--but is it
cheering, in such circumstances, that the whole household burst
forth into celebrating the new joys of light and ventilation,
liberty and picturesqueness of position, and thank God that now
they have got a house to their mind? My dear household, cease
singing and psalmodying; lay aside your fiddles, take out your
work-implements, if you have any; for I can say with confidence
the laws of gravitation are still active, and rusty nails,
worm-eaten dovetailings, and secret coherency of old carpentry,
are not the best basis for a household!--In the lanes of Irish
cities, I have heard say, the wretched people are sometimes found
living, and perilously boiling their potatoes, on such
swing-floors and inclined planes hanging on by the joist-ends;
but I did not hear that they sang very much in celebration of
such lodging. No, they slid gently about, sat near the back
wall, and perilously boiled their potatoes, in silence for most
part!--

High shouts of exultation, in every dialect, by every vehicle of
speech and writing, rise from far and near over this last avatar
of Democracy in 1848: and yet, to wise minds, the first aspect it
presents seems rather to be one of boundless misery and sorrow.
What can be more miserable than this universal hunting out of the
high dignitaries, solemn functionaries, and potent, grave and
reverend signiors of the world; this stormful rising-up of the
inarticulate dumb masses everywhere, against those who pretended
to be speaking for them and guiding them? These guides, then,
were mere blind men only pretending to see? These rulers were