be better imagined than described. A few words, however, may give you
its _animus_.

"If," said I, "in this illustrious company, one may indulge in a
Wellerism"--

"Spell it with a _we_, sir, if you please," whispered SAMIVEL, who stood
right behind me.

I resumed. "I have to say, that my feelings at this hour are too many
for me. Perhaps I might add, that the courses have been so also. As my
friend SOYER used to observe when we were together in the Crimea,
astronomical and gastronomical laws are alike fixed. And one of them is,
that the precession of the dinner-plates, and the nutation of the
glasses, do not promote the music of the spheres. But, Mr. PUNCH and
gentlemen, although not one of the heavenly bodies, indeed altogether
terrestrial, one feels, naturally, rounder in his orbit, and a little
more likely to see stars, after such a dinner as this, than before. Do I
not, indeed, see around me now, all the stars of the intellectual
firmament? Are not SIRIUS and ARCTURUS here, in their glory, as well as
ORION and the rest? As my old friend CRISPIN would say, their name is
legion! _I_ would blaze, gentlemen, too, if possible, in honor of the
occasion; but, as I can't Comet, meteors fall in lamentation of my poor
ability.

"The day we celebrate is truly a great one. Since the time of OLAF, the
Northman, our Anglo-Saxon-Celtic race has loved its jesting
philosophers. No fools are they, in fact, even when to that name they
'stoop to conquer.'