[Illustration]
After copious draughts of novels and romances which, the morning
after, leave the literary palate as dry as a lime-kiln, or as Mrs. RAM
would say, "as a lamb-kin," the Baron, thirsting for a more satisfying
beverage, took up a volume, which he may fairly describe as a youthful
quarto, or an imperial pinto, coming from the CHAPMAN AND HALL
cellars, that is, book-sellers, entitled _On Shibboleths_, and written
by W.S. LILLY. In a recent trial it came out that Mr. GEORGE MEREDITH
is the accredited and professional reader for Messrs. CHAPMAN AND
HALL. Is it possible that this eminent philosophical Novelist is
indebted to a quiet perusal of _Shibboleths_ for some of the quaint
philosophical touches not to be read off schoolboywise, with hurried
ellipses, blurting lips, and unintelligent brain, if any, which make
_One of Our Conquerors_ and others, worth perusal? Be this as it may,
which is a convenient shibbolethian formula, the Baron read this book,
and enjoyed it muchly. There is an occasional dig into the Huxleian
anatomy, given with all the politeness of a Louis-the-Fifteenthian
"M.A.," otherwise _Maître d'Armes_, and a passing reference to "The
People's WILLIAM" and the carrying out of the People's will--which is
quite another affair,--all, to quote Sir PETER, "vastly entertaining."
The chapter on the Shibboleth "Education" is, thinks the Baron, about
the best. Mr. LILLY is a Satirist who, as GEORGIUS MEREDITHIUS MAGNUS
might express it, is, in his fervour, near a truth, grasps it, and is
moved to moral distinctness, mental intention, with a preference of
strong, plain speech, and a chuck of interjectory quotation over the
crack of his whip, with which tramping active he flicks his fellows
sharply. With which Meredithism concludes