SEASONABLE REFLECTION.
(By an Old Fogey.)
We are hearing a lot of "the Buffer State";
Faith! it comes to us all—after Forty-eight!
When from gout, and the pretty girls' scorn, we suffer,
We have all arrived at the state of the "Buffer."
"For this Relief—much Thanks." Shakspeare.—A correspondent in the Pall Mall Gazette recently complained of the disappearance of "Thank you," and the substitution of "Thanks" and "Thanks awfully." Why not? It is but a revival of the ancient Latin form "gratias," and surely plural "Thanks" indicates indefinitely more thankfulness than an uneffusive, frigid, singular "Thank you," signifying "I thank you." Let us be Shakspearianly classical, as in the quotation above given, and say "Much thanks." So again, "I am poor in thanks—but I thank you." Here the relative value of the plural and the singular in thanks is well brought out.
BALL VERSUS BALL.
Lyttelton and Lang—with all
Whom pure prejudice can't fetter,—
Say—concerning games at ball—
Golf is good but Cricket better.
Wisdom owns an ounce of practice
Worth a ton of theory. Fact is,
Those who set that saw a-run,
Had not seen a Lyttel-ton!
Who performs as well as teaches,
And can practice what he preaches.