Boy (still reading).-I've to gulp, I see, St. Athanasius's Creed,

Which, I'm told, is a very tough morsel, indeed; As he damns.

Doctor P. (aside).— Ay, and so would I, willingly, too,

All confounded particular young boobies, like you. This comes of Reforming !—all's o'er with our land, When people wo'n't stand what they can't understand; Nor perceive that our ever-rever'd Thirty-Nine Were made, not for men to believe, but to sign.

[Exit Dr. P. in a passion.

LATE TITHE CASE.

"Sic vos non vobis."

1833.

"The Vicar of B-mh-m desires me to state that, in consequence of the passing of a recent Act of Parliament, he is compelled to adopt measures which may by some be considered harsh or precipitate; but, in duty to what he owes to his successors, he feels bound to preserve the rights of the vicarage."-Letter from Mr. S. Powell, August 6.

No, not for yourselves, ye reverend men,

Do

you take one pig in every ten,

But for Holy Church's future heirs,

Who've an abstract right to that pig, as theirs ;

The law supposing that such heirs male

Are already seised of the pig, in tail.
No, not for himself hath B-mh-m's priest
His "well-belov'd" of their pennies fleec'd:
But it is that, before his prescient eyes,

All future Vicars of B-mh-m rise,
With their embryo daughters, nephews, nieces,
And 'tis for them the poor he fleeces.

He heareth their voices, ages hence,

Saying "Take the pig". "oh take the pence;"

The cries of little Vicarial dears,

The unborn B-mh-mites, reach his ears;
And, did he resist that soft appeal,

He would not like a true-born Vicar feel.

Thou, too, L-ndy of L-ck-ngt-n!
A Rector true, if e'er there was one,
Who, for sake of the L-ndies of coming ages,
Gripest the tenths of labourers' wages.*

'Tis true, in the pockets of thy small-clothes
The claim'd" obvention+" of four-pence goes;
But its abstract spirit, unconfin'd,
Spreads to all future Rector-kind,

Warning them all to their rights to wake,
And rather to face the block, the stake,
Than give up their darling right to take.

*Fourteen agricultural labourers (one of whom received so little as six guineas for yearly wages, one eight, one nine, another ten guineas, and the best paid of the whole not more than 187. annually) were all, in the course of the autumn of 1832, served with demands of tithe at the rate of 4d. in the 17. sterling, on behalf of the Rev. F. L-dy, Rector of

&c. The Times, August, 1833.

&c.

† One of the various general tern.s under which oblations, tithes, &c. are comprised.

One grain of musk, it is said, perfumes
(So subtle its spirit) a thousand rooms,
And a single four-pence, pocketed well,
Through a thousand rectors' lives will tell.
Then still continue, ye reverend souls,
And still as your rich Pactolus rolls,
Grasp every penny on every side,
From every wretch, to swell its tide:
Remembering still what the Law lays down,
In that pure poetic style of its own,
"If the parson in esse submits to loss, he
"Inflicts the same on the parson in posse."

FOOLS' PARADISE.

DREAM THE FIRST.

I HAVE been, like Puck, I have been, in a trice, To a realm they call Fools' Paradise,

Lying N. N. E. of the Land of Sense,

And seldom bless'd with a glimmer thence.
But they want it not in this happy place,

Where a light of its own gilds every face;
Or, if some wear a shadowy brow,

'Tis the wish to look wise,

-not knowing how. Self-glory glistens o'er all that's there, The trees, the flowers have a jaunty air; The well-bred wind in a whisper blows, The snow, if it snows, is couleur de rose, The falling founts in a titter fall,

And the sun looks simpering down on all.

Oh, 'tisn't in tongue or pen to trace
The scenes I saw in that joyous place.