ers which make the supposed writer make _himself_ ridiculous.
Sydney Smith's "Noodle's Oration" is the sort of thing in another kind:
and some of the letters in the _Spectator_ class of periodical are fun
in the kind itself. Defoe's _Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ comes
near. But we have nothing like the famous _Epistolae Obscurorum
Virorum_, which are the very triumph of the style.

[54] See the extensive classification of the Greeks, as noticed and
reproduced before.

[55] The "Letter to Sir W. Windham" of the one and the "Letter to a
noble Lord" of the other, have ample justification. _Letters on a
Regicide Peace_, great as they are in themselves, have less claim to
their title. But it was a favourite with both writers.

[56] The King was William and the Queen Mary, which limits considerably
the otherwise rather illimitable "concerning the kingdom."

[57] This word is of course a _vox nihili_, being neither French nor
English. But it has usage in its favour, and I do not see that it is
improved by writing it "_dis_habille." If anyone prefers the actual
French form he can add the accents.

[58] The account of the journey with Lintot the publisher is sometimes
quoted in disproof of this. It is amusing, but has still to some tastes
Pope's factitiousness without the technical charm of his verse to carry
it off.

[59] There is one small but rather famous class of letters which perhaps
should receive separate though brief notice. It is that of laconic and
either intentionally or unintentionally humorous utilisations of the
letter-form. Of one sort Captain Walton's "Spanish fleet taken and
destroyed as per margin" is probably the most noted type: of another the
equally famous rejoinder of the Highland magnate to his rival "Dear
Glengarry, When you have proved yourself to be my chief, I shall be
happy to admit your claim. Meanwhile I am Yours, Macdonald." In pure
farce of an irreverent kind, the possibly apocryphal interchange between
a Royal Duke and a Right Reverend Bishop, "Dear Cork, Please ordain
Stanhope, Yours, York," and "Dear York, Stanhope's ordained. Yours,
Cork," has the palm as a recognised "chestnut." But these things are
only the frills if not even the froth of the subject; and those who
imitate them should exercise caution in the imitation. The
police-courts, and even more exalted, but still more unwholesome abodes
of Justice, have sometimes been the consequences of misguided satire in
letters. Even