How happily do these few lines characterize a certain set of people who
pick up news from "good authority," and settle the fate of the nation
over strong potations of brandy and water, or Calvert's porter,
forgetting that "people who drink beer, think beer." Suppose a question
of great public interest afloat:--"Reports are abroad, precisely of the
proper pitch of absurdity, for the greedy swallowing of the great
grey-goggle-eyed public, who may be seen standing with her mouth wide
open like a crocodile, with her hands in her breeches-pockets, at the
crosses of cities on market-days, gluttonously devouring whatever rumour
flings into her maw--nor in the least aware that she is all the time
eating wind. People of smallish abilities begin to look wiser and wiser
every day--their nods seem more significant--in the shaking of their
heads there is more of Burleigh--and in short sentences--that sound like
apophthegms--they are apt to impose themselves on their credulous selves
as so many Solomons."
* * * * *