oy unearthly, and lighter sat world's care;
For it opened up the vista of an echoless dim shore,
Where my mother kindly greets me, as in good days of yore."

Here, then, is that quality of peculiarly hopeless poetasting which
strikes cold upon the stomach, and makes man turn sadly from his
drivelling brother. Do we not know this sort of thing? Out of the
rejected contributions in our waste-basket we could daily furnish the
inside and outside of a dozen Balls. It _is_ saddening, it _is_
pathetic; it has gone on so long now, and must still continue for so
many ages; but we can just bear it as a negative quality. It is only
when such rubbish is put forward as proof that its author has a claim to
the name and fame of a poet, that we lose patience. The verses given in
this pamphlet would invalidate Mr. Ball's claim to the authorship of
Mrs. Akers's poem, even though the Seven Sleepers swore that he rocked
them asleep with it in the time of the Decian persecution. But beside
the irrefragable internal evidence afforded by the specimens given of
Mr. Ball's poetry, and by his "first draft" of the disputed poem, and by
his "completed copy" of the poem, there is the well-known fact that Mr.
Ball is a self-confessed plagiarist in one case, and a convicted
plagiarist in several others. He has lately allowed in a published
letter that he used a poem by Mrs. Whitman in "concocting" one of his
own. It was some years since proven that he had plagiarized other
poems,--even one from Mrs. Hemans.

Mr. Ball has some claims to forbearance and interest as a curious
psychological study. Kleptomania is a well-known disorder. The unhappy
persons affected steal whatever they can, wherever they can, and come
home from evening parties with their pockets full of silver spoons,
which are usually sent home with the apologies of mortified friends. We
believe, however, this is the first instance of kleptomania of which the
victim not only steals, but turns upon the person plundered and makes
accusation that the stolen goods had been first filched from him. Mr.
Ball is phenomenal, but is a legislative assembly the place for this
sort of curiosity? If he is of sound mind, he is guilty of a very cruel
and shameless wrong, meriting expulsion from any body that makes laws
against larceny. If sane, let him go be elected to the New York Common
Council.

Of this pamphlet, aside from Mr. Ball, we have merely to say that it
appears to be written by the