Punch (58.1870)

iv PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [June 25, mo.

" They must learn to bear Adversity. She is a ' daughter of Jove; relentless power ; A tamer of the human
breast; Whose iron scourge and torturing hour The bad affright, afflict the best' (as my friend Thomas Gray wrote).
Have you vanished, World ? Go and eclipse somebody."

" You are eclipsing yourself," said the World, smartly.

" Well, it does not hurt. ' Non Icedit' (as my friend Lady Arbia said). Do not make me cross, or you may
repent it."

" The World never repents anything."

" Who taught you that precious bit of Lavaterism ? It is perfectly false ; but I am not in the mood to show

you why. Depart. * How happy is the blameless Punch's lot, The world forgetting, by '--What are you making

that unseemly noise for ? "

" That you may not finish the quotation. When the World forgets You, may it roll away, a blackened ball, into
everlasting space, and, destitute of gravitation, buzz like a Chimera in vacuo, devouring second intentions."

" You are a Muddler, as ever, but you make me smile. Eternal smiles your emptiness betray—excites, I mean.
Is there anything left in that silver tankard?"

" Plenty. Ice islands bob in a sea of amber, and gently stir it to the emitting of an aroma that refreshes all
the senses ere the lips are cooled by the beady draught."

" World, you ass, your intimacy with the clouds turns your brain. Clear it with the draught you speak of.
' Cup yourself till you go round,' again to cite Eternal W."

" I drink to you, respectfully," said the World ; " and I should do so rejoicingly, if I could couple the Preface
with my toast."

" How dare you talk of toast this weather ? Volcanoes take you ; hold your aggravating tongue. In fact, if you
could learn generally a little more love of ' the Silences ' (as my friend Thomas Carlyle says), it would be better for
some who have the misfortuue to co-exist with you. It was not for nothing that the Scandinavian theologists saw a
Reign of Silence as the end of you, when battering Odin and bawling Thor should have been extinguished by the
excellent Wolf Fenris and the respectable Serpent his friend, to whom my best homages. Why such perpetual babble '?
I will set a good example."

" Sophistical excuse for your laziness," said the World, provoked out of patienee. " It is for a Teacher to speak,
and to speak continually, while the Taught listen. You are a Great Teacher, and you are lying under that tree like a
great log."

" Deducting the comparison, which is inappropriate, for my friend Mr. Charles Keene has made me look like
anything but a log," said Mr Punch (with as much dignity as his attitude would allow), "you are right; and, therefore,
in again suggesting to you to take something to drink, I authorise the publication of this interview as the instructive
Preface to my

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