169. ASCRIBED TO VOLTAIRE
This French charade, ascribed by some to Lady Waterford, and by others to Voltaire, has neat points:—
Mon premier est un tyran, mon second un horreur,
Mon tout est le diable lui-même.
Mais si mon premier est bon, mon second ne fait rien,
Et mon tout est le bonheur suprême.
170. AT THE GUILDHALL
Sydney Smith, when questioned as to the value and satisfaction of a City feast, said: “I cannot wholly value a dinner by the .... ... ..” Can you supply the finish of his witty reply?
171.
In youth exalted high in air,
Or bathing in the streamlet fair,
Nature to form me took delight
And clothed my body all in white;
My person tall and slender waist
On either side with fringes graced;
Till me that tyrant Man espied,
And dragg’d me from my mother’s side.
No wonder that I look so thin,
The monster stripp’d me to the skin;
My body flay’d, my hair he cropp’d,
And head and foot both off he lopp’d;
And then, with heart more hard than stone,
Pick’d all the marrow from my bone.
To vex me more, he took a freak
To slit my tongue, and make me speak.
But that which wonderful appears,
I speak to eyes and not to ears.
All languages I now command
Yet not a word I understand.