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I've dreamt about some blessed spot
Beneath the blessed sky

Where Bread and Justice never rise
Too dear for folks to buy.

It's cheaper than the Ward of Cheap:
But how shall I get there?

'Straight down the Crooked Lane
And all round the Square.'

They say there is an ancient House,
As pure as it is old,

Where Members always speak their minds,
And votes are never sold.

I'm fond of all antiquities:

But how shall I get there?

• Straight down the Crooked Lane,
And all round the Square.'

They say there is a Royal Court
Maintain'd in noble state,
Where every able man, and good,
Is certain to be great.

I'm very fond of seeing sights:
But how shall I get there?
Straight down the Crooked Lane,
And all round the Square.'

They say there is a Temple, too,
Where Christians come to pray;
But canting knaves and hypocrites
And bigots keep away.

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O, that's the parish-church for me!
But how shall I get there?

Straight down the Crooked Lane,

And all round the Square.""

But we must leave off, though there be many things as good behind as anything we have quoted. Our readers, however, cannot but long for the latest news from Stoke Pogis, and it gratifies us that we are able to afford some satisfaction on the subject of that unsettled and turbulent corner of the land; although it cannot be pleasing to any but conspirators and revolutionists to learn that an incendiary song has been found on the person of one of the Club. It is a most inflammatory effusion, as a specimen will prove :

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Sing old Rose, and burn the bellows!
Burn me, but I'll burn my wig!
Christmas time is all before us:
Burn all puddings, north and south.
Burn the Turkey-Burn the Devil!
Burn snap-dragon! burn your mouth!
Burn the coals! they're up at sixty!
Burn Burn's Justice-burn old Coke.
Burn the chesnuts. Burn the shovel!
Burn a fire, and burn the smoke!

Burn burnt almonds. Burn burnt brandy.
Let all burnings have a turn.

Burn Chabert, the Salamander,

Burn the man that wouldn't burn!

Burn the old year out, don't ring it;

Burn the one that must begin.

Burn Lang Syne! and, whilst you're burning.

Burn the burn he paddled in.

Burn the boxing! Burn the Beadle !
Burn the baker! Burn his man!

Burn the butcher-Burn the dustman.
Burn the sweeper, if you can!

Burn the Postman! burn the postage!
Burn the knocker-burn the bell!
Burn the folks that come for money!
Burn the bills-and burn 'em well.
Burn the Parish! Burn the rating!
Burn all taxes in a mass!
Burn the paving! Burn the Lighting!
Burn the burners! Burn the gas!
Burn all candles, white or yellow-
Burn for war, and not for peace!
Burn the Czar of all the Tallow!
Burn the King of all the Greece !

Burn all canters-burn in Smithfield.

Burn Tea-Tottle hum and bug;
Burn his kettle, burn his water,

Burn his muffin, burn his mug!

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Burn a Critic that condemns.

Burn Lucifer and all his matches!

Burn the fool that burns the Thames !"

Sure our readers had never such a treat of burning; long be it before Thomas Hood's wit and jokes are burnt out!

ART. VI.-Dissertations on Subjects of Science connected with Natural Theology: being the concluding Volumes of the New Edition of Paley's Work. By HENRY LORD BROUGHAM, F.R.S., Member of the National Institute of France, &c. In 2 vols. London: Knight. 1839. THERE surely never existed a man who was possessed of more active powers, or was impelled by a more restless temperament than the noble author of these and many other volumes. This activity and restlessness manifests itself not merely by the constancy and earnestness with which he pursues certain objects, performs certain labours, but by the number and variety of these pursuits and labours. It seems as if nothing came amiss to him; as if he were intimately acquainted with every branch of study, be it politics, legislation, belles lettres, natural history, philosophy, or mathematics; and as if the object in hand occupied exclusively his mind and feelings. Perhaps in none of his other works has he exhibited so many proofs of a most varied and curious range of reading as well as observation. The fact most probably is, that even such active and lively powers as those possessed by his lordship, could not put forth such energy or sustain such constancy in regard to any one of his pursuits, his business in Parliament, for example, were he not refreshed by variety, change being to him, not only positive rest but an absolute process of restoring and communicating new nourishment. It is quite clear that his exhaustless illustrations in debate or in composition on any subject, have, in the way pointed out, been furnished to him; for whatever be the theme no one can predict how far he will travel for ideas, without for a moment losing sight of the object aimed at, or how aptly he will turn to account what in the hands of most persons would appear unnatural, forced, and enfeebling or absurd.

In no other performance of Lord Brougham have we ever discovered a more characteristic display of all his peculiarities. Comprehensiveness of view, clearness of statement, felicity of expression, art in selecting and disposing of facts, and dexterity in forming conclusions; these are features in these Dissertations that have seldom, comparing each of them separately with as many writers, been surpassed. It must be remarked, besides, that among the things that will recommend these volumes to every reader, the obvious flow of the author's animal spirits, his vivacity, and lightsome mood, are so pervading as to communicate kindred feelings to the reader, and to render some of the abstrusest subjects that ever engaged philosophic minds interesting and engaging. What other man could have written about animal instinct and the origin of evil, and not been tiresome to the ordinary reader? Where is there another mathematician who could have popularized Newton's Principia? The work is, in fact, stored with amasing matter, all tend

ing to the main end; or if the digressions are at any time sudden, they are so playful and aptly introduced as to relieve the tension of mind which the discussion occasions, and prepare the attention to take it immediately up again with renovated vigour.

We must, however, observe that along with these favourable features and excellences, his lordship's less enviable and yet no less characteristic qualities distinguish the volumes. Self-conceit, an effort to show himself off, inconclusiveness of argument, the habits of advocacy, as if a case must be made out by might, rather than by right, and ingenuity instead of originality, are throughout prominent. We are not aware that any one ever attributed the highest evidence of genius, viz., originality, to his lordship; and on such subjects as instinct, and the origin of evil, we should least of all expect from him a ray of new light. Nor have our anticipations been negatived. There is not a single discovery made, a single difficulty removed, a single novel principle of proof advanced. But there is a great variety of new illustration, a vast deal of novel or curious information, and many instances of old facts so ingeniously collocated as to produce nearly as much interest as if novel principles were presented and novel conclusions arrived at. True, the reasoning is often faulty, the deductions are frequently unwarranted, while assumption and inconsistency, natural to a mind of remarkable activity and vivacity, are somtimes bolder than any things of the kind to be expected from a far duller person.

The principal subjects handled are, first, the nature of animal instinct and animal intelligence; secondly, that most puzzling of all questions, the origin of evil. Here we are left just where we were before, and where, we believe, we shall ever remain, so long as we are mortal beings. We shall not for a moment detain our readers with anything we can say on this wonderful subject, further than to state that Lord Brougham's view is the only one we can safely adhere to, viz. that if we knew all, we would fully understand that

"All discord's harmony not understood,
All partial evil universal good;"

that there is far less evil than good in the world, and that even in imagination we cannot make a better world.

We are far from thinking that our author has wasted time in writing, or that any one will be idly employed in reading this or any other part of these volumes. Quite the reverse; for he succeeds in impressing the mind with deep feelings of wonder, veneration, and awe towards the Deity by his diversified and richly multifarious views. The very fact that a mind of such compass in secular knowledge sees beauty, wisdom, and goodness in every thing; that his habits uniformly lead him to trace all that is great, lovely, and perfect to God, is instructive as well as consolatory.

Two or three passages may be introduced here to prove that the tone of the work is as we have now described it :

"A man of the most extensive benevolence and strictest integrity in his general deportment has done something equivocal; nay, something apparently harsh, and cruel; we are slow to condemn him; we give him credit for acting with a good motive and for a righteous purpose; we rest satisfied that if we only knew everything, he would come out blameless.' This arises from a just and a sound view of human character, and its general consistency with itself. The same reasoning may surely be applied, with all humility and reverence, to the works and intentions of the great Being who has implanted in our mind the principles which lead to that just and sound view of the deeds and motives of men."

While this exhibits the author's reverential mode of speaking and thinking, it also illustrates our statement of his method of accounting for the existence of evil, viz., that nothing would be evil if we knew all. The passages we now quote, elegantly and happily declare that nothing is worthless or other than beautiful in the inferior creation; nothing that does not command man's admiration, the moment he understands its nature; and, the deeper his insight reaches, the greater his wonder and the more satisfactory his comprehension of divine goodness and intelligence become :—

"The structure and functions of the maggot, bred in the most filthy corruption that can disgust our senses, exhibits, even to the eye of the philosopher, how cumbered soever with the mortal coil, as marvellous a spectacle of Divine skill and benevolence as the sanguiferous or the nervous system of the human body, or the form of the most lovely and fragrant flower that blows."

Again,

"If the senses so move the animal's mind as to produce the perfect result which we witness, those senses have been framed, and that mind has been constituted, in strict harmony with each other, and their combined and mutual action has been adjusted to the regular performance of the work spread out before our eyes, the subject of just wonder. If it is Reason like our own which moves the animal mechanism, its modification to suit that physical structure, and to work those effects which we are unable to accomplish, commands again our humble admiration, while the excellence of the workmanship performed by so mean an agent impresses us with ideas yet more awful of the Being who formed and who taught it. If to the bodily structure of these creatures there has been given a mind wholly different from our own, yet it has been most nicely adapted to its material abode, and to the corporeal tools wherewith it works; so that while a new variety strikes us in the infinite resources of creative skill, our admiration is still raised as before, by the manifestation of contrivance and of expertness which everywhere speaks the governing power, the directing skill, the plastic hand. Nor is there, upon any of these hypotheses, room for doubting the identity of the Great Artificer of nature. The same

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