hat a capital thing a
dish all fins (turbot's fins) might be made. "Capital," said he; "dine
with me on it to-morrow." "Accepted." Would you believe it? when the
cover was removed, the sacrilegious dog of an Amphytrion had put into
the dish "Cicero _De finibus_" "There is a work all fins," said he.

* * * * *

POETRY OF THE SEA.

Campbell was a great lover of submarine prospects. "Often in my
boyhood," says the poet, "when the day has been bright and the sea
transparent, I have sat by the hour on a Highland rock admiring the
golden sands, the emerald weeds, and the silver shells at the bottom of
the bay beneath, till, dreaming about the grottoes of the Nereids, I
would not have exchanged my pleasure for that of a connoisseur poring
over a landscape by Claude or Poussin. Enchanting nature! thy beauty is
not only in heaven and earth, but in the waters under our feet. How
magnificent a medium of vision is the pellucid sea! Is it not like
poetry, that embellishes every object that we contemplate?"

* * * * *

"FELON LITERATURE."

One of the most stinging reproofs of perverted literary taste, evidently
aimed at Newgate Calendar literature, appeared in the form of a
valentine, in No. 31 of _Punch_, in 1842.

The valentine itself reminds one of Churchill's muse; and it needs no
finger to tell where its withering satire is pointed:--

"THE LITERARY GENTLEMAN.

"Illustrious scribe! whose vivid genius strays 'Mid Drury's stews
to incubate her lays, And in St. Giles's slang conveys her tropes,
Wreathing the poet's lines with hangmen's ropes; You who conceive
'tis poetry to teach The sad bravado of a dying speech; Or, when
possessed with a sublimer mood, Show "Jack o'Dandies" dancing upon
blood! Crush bones--bruise flesh, recount each festering sore--
Rake up the plague-pit, write--and write in gore! Or, when
inspired to humanize mankind, Where doth your soaring soul its
subjects find? Not 'mid the scenes that simple Goldsmith sought,
And found a theme to elevate his thought; But you, great scribe,
more greedy of renown, From Hounslow's gibbet drag a hero down.
Imbue his mind with virtue; make him quote Some moral truth before
he cuts a throat. Then wash his hands, and soaring o'er your
craft--Refresh the hero with a bloody draught: And, fearing lest
the world should miss the act, With noble zea