Punch (14.1848)

JT is always a matter of sweet anxiety to Punch to confer, with a new volume, a new delight upon his readers. But
new pleasures are difficult to find : as, indeed, they ought to be, seeing how often we ill-use or neglect the old.

Nevertheless, Punch, about to complete his fourteenth tome, retired to his Brown Study, and dropt himself—lightly
as a snow-flake—in what upholsterers delight to call an easy chair. (We have at this moment in the press an essay—
"Uneasy Thoughts in an Uneasy Seat.")

Punch clasped his brow with his fingers, giving it a squeeze—(as Poussin's Bacchante squeezeth the big bunch of
grapes to express therefrom its heart-reviving juice)—to delight the heart and stomach of mankind. And then, subtly
to aid the operation, Punch laid his other hand upon a (32-inch) globe. In idleness of fancy, he thought some source
■of inspiration would break from that many-coloured ball.

And then, still coaxing the idle thought—fondling the leisure moment, (and it is a pleasant sort of nurse-work this
pleasant sort of weather,) Punch turned and turned the globe about, now his fingers trending towards the North Pole,
and now towards the South.

The heart of Punch was big with "virtuous great intent." The difficulty was to successfully produce the
blessing. " What further can I do for the world ? " still mused Punch,—and still he turned and turned the sphere about.

" Humph ! Here 's France ! Poor France! And Louis-Napoleon—hatched from goose-egg in eagle's nest—at this
moment sitting to imaginary tailor for measure of imperial robe of moonshine !

" Here comes up Spain. And now Isturitz enters the Palace, and shows to the Minister the Prodigious Flea
which Palmerston placed in his Ambassadorial Ear, with orders to make up his carpet-bag from London.

" And here, Austria. Vienna, with royal lodgings to let ; and the Tyrol big as bagpipe, with windy Majesty !

" Ha ! Italy ! And see Pope Pius, with courteous invitation desires the Imperial Tedesco to withdraw his leg
from the Boot.