way, give utterance to truths which seem
hard and stern when spoken in grim earnest. Let us see whether we cannot
find some allegory to represent what we mean.

Some time ago, I read a tale which related that a certain gentleman was,
once on a time, digging a deep hole in his garden. He had, as I myself
had in my younger days, a perfect passion for digging holes, for the
mere pleasure of doing it; but the hole which he was now digging was by
far the deepest which he had ever attempted. At last he became perfectly
fascinated, carried away by his pursuit, and actually had his dinner let
down to him by a bucket. Well, he dug on late and early, when just as he
was plunging in his spade with great energy for a new dig, he penetrated
right through, and fell down, down to the centre of the earth.

To his astonishment he landed upon the top of a coach which was passing
at the time, and soon found himself perfectly at home, and began to
enter into conversation with the passenger opposite to him, a very
gentlemanly looking man enveloped entirely in a black cloak. He soon
found out that the country into which his lot had fallen was a very
strange one. Its peculiarities were thus stated by his gentlemanly
fellow-passenger. "Ours, Sir," said he, "is called the country of
Skitzland. All the Skitzlanders are born with all their limbs and
features perfect; but when they arrive at a certain age, all their limbs
and features which have not been used drop off, leaving only the bones
behind. It is rather dark this evening, or you would have seen this more
plainly. Look forward there at our coachman, he consists simply of a
stomach and hands, these being the only things he has ever used. Those
two whom you see chatting together are brothers in misfortune; one is a
clergyman, the other a lawyer; they have neither of them got any legs at
all, though each of them possess a finely developed understanding; and
you cannot help remarking what a massive jaw the lawyer has got. Yonder
is Mr.----, the celebrated millionaire, he is just raising his hat; you
see he has lost all the top part of his head, indeed he has little of
his head left, except the bump of acquisitiveness and the faculty of
arithmetical calculation. There are two ladies, members of the
fashionable world, their case is very pitiable, they consist of nothing
whatever but a pair of eyes and a bundle of nerves. There are two
members of the mercantile world, they are munching some sandw