Great vocalist! that tak'st, with wondrous ease,
A rapid passage on the highest C's;
Thy compass beats the mariner's quite hollow,
For where it leads none but thyself can follow;
And then the wind, at will, 'tis thou canst raise,
By gentle airs, for which the public pays;
Thy skill e'en that of Orpheus far surpasses,
He charm'd wild beasts, but thou enchantest asses,
As in their stalls—places for donkeys fit—
With ears erect the dilettanti sit.
When hanging on the honey of thy lip,
Mellifluous harmony we seem to sip;
And, listening to the strain sent forth by thee,
A paradise the opera would be,
But for the little truth our purses teach,
That we are _minus_ half a guinea each.
[Illustration:
British Museum 2043—Curiosities of Ancient Times.
]
THE BRITISH MUSEUM TWO HUNDRED
YEARS HENCE.
The British Association for the Advancement of Science, which began its
meetings at Bristol, has since been strongly recommended to go to Bath;
and if it is not sent permanently to Coventry before the year 2043, we
may conceive its having reached by that time a state of stagnancy in the
neighbourhood of Bloomsbury. As there will, of course, be antiquarians
among them, imagination can easily picture them clinging fondly to St.
Giles's, as the quarter inhabited by the Anglo-Greeks; and the members
will, no doubt, be searching, a hundred years hence, for the fossil
remains of petrified crows in the neighbourhood of the Rookery.
The following is an anticipatory report of the meeting of the
Association, after having been cradled in the laps of time during the
lapse of a couple of centuries.