, and it comprises all the infinite
varieties that fill the interval between slashing and plastering. This
is the nicety of the art, and you can only acquire it by practice; a few
examples will suffice to give you an idea of its delicacy.

"We will begin with the encouraging tickle: 'Although this work is
full of faults,--though the characters are unnatural, the plot utterly
improbable, the thoughts hackneyed, and the style ungrammatical,--yet we
would by no means discourage the author from proceeding; and in the mean
while we confidently recommend his work to the attention of the reading
public."

"Take, now, the advising tickle: 'There is a good deal of merit in these
little volumes, although we must regret the evident haste in which they
were written. The author might do better,--we recommend him a study of
the best writers;' then conclude by a Latin quotation, which you may
take from one of the mottoes in the 'Spectator.'

"Now, young gentleman, for a specimen of the metaphorical tickle: 'We
beg this poetical aspirant to remember the fate of Pyrenaeus, who,
attempting to pursue the Muses, forgot that he had not the wings of the
goddesses, flung himself from the loftiest ascent he could reach, and
perished.'

"This you see, Paul, is a loftier and more erudite sort of tickle, and
may be reserved for one of the Quarterly Reviews. Never throw away a
simile unnecessarily.

"Now for a sample of the facetious tickle: 'Mr.---has obtained a
considerable reputation! Some fine ladies think him a great philosopher,
and he has been praised in our hearing by some Cambridge Fellows for his
knowledge of fashionable society.'

"For this sort of tickle we generally use the dullest of our tribe;
and I have selected the foregoing example from the criticisms of a
distinguished writer in 'The Asinaeum,' whom we call, par excellence,
the Ass.

"There is a variety of other tickles,--the familiar, the vulgar, the
polite, the good-natured, the bitter; but in general all tickles may be
supposed to signify, however disguised, one or other of these meanings:
'This book would be exceedingly good if it were not exceedingly bad;'
or, 'this book would be exceedingly bad if it were not exceedingly
good.'

"You have now, Paul, a general idea of the superior art required by the
tickle?"

Our hero signified his assent by a sort of hysterical sound between a
laugh and a groan. MacGrawler continued:--

"There is another grand difficulty att