and in print intolerable. Examples follow: (1, straightforward) _You
must show him, by leaving him severely alone, by putting him into a
moral Coventry, your detestation of the crime_; (2, ironical) _Fish of
prey do not appear to relish the sharp spines of the stickleback, and
usually seem to leave them severely alone_; (3, pointless) _Austria
forbids children to_ _smoke in public places; and in German schools
and military colleges there are laws upon the subject; France, Spain,
Greece, and Portugal leave the matter severely alone_. It is obvious
at once how horrible the faded jocularity of No. 3 is in print; and,
though things like it come crowding upon one another in most
conversation, they are not very easy to find in newspapers and books
of any merit; a small gleaning of them follows:

_The moral_, as Alice would say, _appeared to be that, despite its
difference in degree, an obvious essential in the right kind of
education had been equally lacking to both these girls_ (as Alice, or
indeed as you or I, might say).

_Resignation_ became a virtue of necessity _for Sweden_ (If you do
what you must with a good grace, you make a virtue of necessity;
without _make_, a virtue of necessity loses its meaning).

_I strongly advise the single working-man who would become a
successful backyard poultry-keeper_ to ignore the advice of Punch,
_and to secure a useful helpmate_.

_The beloved lustige Wien_ [merry Vienna] _of his youth had_ suffered
a sea-change. _The green glacis ... was blocked by ranges of grand new
buildings_ (Ariel must chuckle at the odd places in which his
sea-change turns up).