52
PHANTASMAGORIA, the scene of fine gentlemanism dissolves, and is followed by prisons and suicides; these again dissolve, and then we read in fiery characters,
HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.
I am almost however inclined to believe with Otway, that
Like wit, much talked of, not to be defined:
He that pretends to most too, ha least share in't."
From the peer to the peasant, roguery seems the rule, honesty the exception.
Another of the wonders of the world, is consistency. Where is the consistent man? If I, like Diogenes, were to take a lanthern and go out in search of a consistent man, I would see, as I have seen, strange sights. I could give abundanee of illustrations, but had better not, as every one would think I meant him in particular, and that would be travelling on dangerous ground, as Paddy said when he walked the ice. But in order to test whether there be a consistent man (of course myself excepted). I here offer to give a copy of this book, "with the Author's compliments" marked on it to any person who, within a year from its publication, will prove that he has, even outwardly, acted in all things consistently, for only three weeks! and besides I will endeavour to get his photograph, with a full chart of his phrenological developement hung up in the Museum of the Paisley Philosophical Society, as one of its greatest curiosities.
Great men, like me, are finger posts on the
