, and quickly said 'Adsum!' and
fell back. It was the word used at school, when names were called; and
lo, he, whose heart was that of a little child, had answered to his
name, and stood in the presence of his Master."

There is a tender regret in Hood's little poem, "I Remember":

"I remember, I remember,
The fir-trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky;
It was a childish ignorance,
But now 'tis little joy
To know I'm further off from heaven
Than when I was a boy."

The ludicrous often adds charm to literature. It is divided into two
species,--wit and humor. Wit consists in the discovery of remote
analogies or relations, and produces an amusing surprise. It has various
forms. In the _pun_, which is a rather low order of wit, there is a play
on the meaning of words. Punning is an art easily acquired; but a pun is
usually an impertinence to be excused only by its felicity. Hood was one
of the most ingenious of punsters; and in his ballad, "Faithless Nelly
Gray," the wit of each stanza is found in a pun.

"Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war's alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms."

_Satire_ ridicules the follies and vices of men, and is frequent in both
ancient and modern literature. Sometimes it is good-natured, but oftener
it is bitter. Swift's "Tale of a Tub" is a fierce attack upon
ecclesiastical divisions, while Pope's "Dunciad," which impales many of
his contemporary writers, almost ruined the reputations it touched.
Addison in the _Spectator_ is genial in his satire. Byron is a master of
powerful satire, and in the "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" he
indiscriminately lampoons his contemporaries. For example:

"Shall gentle Coleridge pass unnoticed here,
To turgid ode and tumid stanza dear?
Though themes of innocence amuse him best,
Yet still obscurity's a welcome guest.
If inspiration should her aid refuse
To him who takes a Pixy for a muse,
Yet none in lofty numbers can surpass
The bard who soars to elegize an ass.
How well the subject suits his noble mind!
'A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind!'"

A _parody_ is a burlesque imitation and degradation of something
serious. In his song, "Those Evening Bells," Moore wrote in pensive
mood,--

"And so 'twill be when I