Punch or The London charivari (5.1843)

with a hilarious beating of the
heart, presents his Fifth Volume,
and his Third Christmas Gift, to an applauding world.
Punch was never guilty of that self-denying modesty,
which, pauper-like, stands uncapped in thousands of
Prefaces, assuring the reader that the book before him
is, indeed, a poor thing — a crude, unripe pippin,
unworthy the tooth of any gentleman; while at the
ery time the hypocritical sneak-up, in the sweet
bigotry of conceit, believes it to be an apple from
the Hesperides :—no ; Punch is above the meanness
of such felonious bashfulness, and throws down a new
Volume on the counter of the world, as he would
lay down a fifty pound note, rustling in all its virgin
silveriness from the bank. With every new tome,
Punch feels that he presents a new pleasure to mankind ; and therefore, with a pardonable gesture of triumph,
twitches his waistband, and looks smilinglv about him with the sparkling eye of a benefactor !

The present Volume is PuNCifs Christmas Geft. There are certain authors whose books require a key
for the necessary understanding thereof. Punch will, for once, condescend to imitation ; and, in few words,
produce a key by means of which his present Book for Christmas may be the better digested and enjoyed.

Laughter is a divine faculty. It is one of the few, nay, the only one redeeming grace in that thunder-
cased, profligate old scoundrel Jupjter, that he sometimes laughs : he is saved from the disgust of all respectable
people by the amenity of a broad grin. It is a prerogative, conceded to Punch, to awaken laughter; and when
he thinks of the national blood he has quickened—when, every night, falling off into the Elysium of sweet

dreams, he reflects upon the increased circulation of John Bull, and himself, he cannot but no: he will not

boast: he will cultivate humility, though like asparagus, at this festive season, he is obliged to force it.

That the present Volume may be perused in a proper spirit—that laughter, free and silvery from the
heart, may escape the reader, doing rightful honour to Punch, and bestowing cheerfulness and health upon the
laugher, it is—Punch repeats—necessary to read his book after certain self-preparation. Otherwise, Punch
refuses the homage of merriment ; would sooner listen to pebbles rattling in a tin-pot than the broad grin of