"We might get on pretty well,
With the pretty L. E. L.,
Our compliments unlimitedly carting, O!
We'd call her fair, not wise,
And we'd laud her laughing eyes,—
But this would never do with Harry Martineau!
"For wisdom is her forte;
And, Lord knows, to pay your court
To women who talk wisdom is departing,—O!
From the very laws of chatter,
Which, like the laws of matter,
Shine clear before the soul of Harry Martineau!
"Oh! how she shows her reading,
When she writes about good breeding,
And tells us what good housewives have their heart in, O!
She points the way to riches,
If they would resign the breeches—
But that is all my eye to Harry Martineau!
"She'll also tell you how, man,
To be a perfect ploughman,
And how to give a pound a touch at parting, O!
That'll bring it back again,
With a rich attendant train;
But that we fear's my eye and Harry Martineau!
"Of bacon, eggs, and butter.
Rare philosophy she'll utter;
Not a thing about your house but she'll take part in, O!
As to mine, with all my soul.
She might take (and pay) the whole—
But that is all my eye and Harry Martineau!
"Her political economy
Is as true as Deuteronomy;
And the monster of Distress she sticks a dart in, O!
Yet still he stalks about,
And makes a mighty rout.
But that we hope's my eye and Harry Martineau!
"So having said my say, sir,
And done my best to praise her,—
A task, which, when a youngster, I'd some art in, O!
As perhaps I may have now, sir,—
With this I make my bow, sir,—
All lustre to the eyes of Harry Martineau!"[1]
XLIII.— GRANT THORBURN.
"Our well-informed readers do not require to be told that upwards of thirteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine regular subscribers to any monthly work is an acquisition not to be attained without great assiduity, and, we may add, some talent. We shall not, however, descant on our
- ↑ Fraser's Magazine, May, 1834.
