by that term, and its long shadow, falling over all the intervening
years, is visible, though not too distinctly, upon ourselves. Without
material detriment to a deep and solid happiness, the frolic of the mind
was so habitually chastened, that persons have gained a nook in history
by the mere possession of animal spirits, too exuberant to be confined
within the established bounds. Every vain jest and unprofitable word
was deemed an item in the account of criminality, and whatever wit, or
semblance thereof, came into existence, its birthplace was generally the
pulpit, and its parent some sour old Genevan divine. The specimens of
humor and satire, preserved in the sermons and controversial tracts of
those days, are occasionally the apt expressions of pungent thoughts;
but oftener they are cruel torturings and twistings of trite ideas,
disgusting by the wearisome ingenuity which constitutes their only
merit. Among a people where so few possessed, or were allowed to
exercise, the art of extracting the mirth which lies hidden like latent
caloric in almost everything, a gay apothecary, such as Dr. Bullivant,
must have been a phenomenon.

We will suppose ourselves standing in Cornhill, on a pleasant morning of
the year 1670, about the hour when the shutters are unclosed, and the
dust swept from the doorsteps, and when Business rubs its eyes, and
begins to plod sleepily through the town. The street, instead of
running between lofty and continuous piles of brick, is but partially
lined with wooden buildings of various heights and architecture, in each
of which the mercantile department is connected with the domicile, like
the gingerbread and candy shops of an after-date. The signs have a
singular appearance to a stranger's eye. These are not a barren record
of names and occupations yellow letters on black boards, but images and
hieroglyphics, sometimes typifying the principal commodity offered for
sale, though generally intended to give an arbitrary designation to the