. Look at him, and he will sign to you with his bloated head,
and when you go to him in answer to the sign, thinking perhaps that the
poor dumb man has lost his way, you will see what he writes upon his
slate. He haunts the doors of schools, and shows such inscriptions as
these to the innocent children that come out. He hangs about
picture-galleries, and makes the noblest pictures the text for some
silent homily of vice. His industry is a lesson to ourselves. Is it not
wonderful how he can triumph over his infirmities and do such an amount
of harm without a tongue? Wonderful industry--strange, fruitless,
pleasureless toil? Must not the very devil feel a soft emotion to see
his disinterested and laborious service? Ah, but the devil knows better
than this: he knows that this man is penetrated with the love of evil
and that all his pleasure is shut up in wickedness: he recognises him,
perhaps, as a fit type for mankind of his satanic self, and watches over
his effigy as we might watch over a favourite likeness. As the business
man comes to love the toil, which he only looked upon at first as a
ladder towards other desires and less unnatural gratifications, so the
dumb man has felt the charm of his trade and fallen captivated before
the eyes of sin. It is a mistake when preachers tell us that vice is
hideous and loathsome; for even vice has her Hoersel and her devotees,
who love her for her own sake.

COLLEGE PAPERS

COLLEGE PAPERS

I

EDINBURGH STUDENTS IN 1824

On the 2nd of January 1824 was issued the prospectus of the _Lapsus
Linguae; or, the College Tatler_; and on the 7th the first number
appeared. On Friday the 2nd of April "_Mr. Tatler_ became speechless."
Its history was not all one success; for the editor (who applies to
himself the words of Iago, "I am nothing if I am not critical")
over-stepped the bounds of caution, and found himself seriously
embroiled with the powers that were. There appeared in No. XVI. a most
bitter satire upon Sir John Leslie, in which he was compared to
Falstaff, charged with puffing himself, and very prettily censured for
publishing only the first volume of a class-book, and making all
purchasers pay for both. Sir John Leslie took up the matter angrily,
visited Carfrae the publisher, and threatened him with an action, till
he was forced to turn the hapless _Lapsus_ out of doors. The maltreated
periodical found shelter in the shop of Huie, Infirmary Street; and NO.
XV