“Head, legs, and arms, alone appear;
Observe that nobody is here;
Napoleon-like I undertake
Of nobody a king to make.”
The next card presented a laughing face, which on being turned round, was instantly changed into a weeping one. The motto--The sweetest things turn sour.
“The device is capital!” exclaimed the vicar, “I question whether Peter of Cortona ever produced a more striking metamorphosis.”[[64]]
The other cards were now exhibited in succession, of which the box contained eighteen, and the whole party, not even excepting the vicar, were highly gratified with the amusement.
“But I have not yet read to you the author’s address to the public; and which, I must say, contains a succession of very happy puns.”
“Spare me! spare me!” cried the vicar: “I like your toy, but cannot discover the advantage of alloying amusement with such spurious wit, and of associating science with buffoonery.”
Mr. Seymour, however, was relentless, and thus proceeded: “It is well known that the Laputan philosopher invented a piece of machinery, by which works could be composed by a mechanical operation; and the Quarterly Review has asserted, that a certain English poem was fabricated in Paris, by the powers of a steam-engine; but the author of the present invention claims for himself the exclusive merit of having first constructed a hand-mill, by which puns and epigrams may be turned with as much ease as tunes are played on the hand-organ, and old jokes so rounded and changed, as to assume all the airs of originality. The inventor confidently anticipates the favour and patronage of an enlightened and liberal public, on the well-grounded assurance, that ‘one good turn deserves another;’ and he trusts that his discovery may afford the happy means of giving activity to wit that has been long stationary; of revolutionising the present system of standing jokes, and of putting into rapid circulation the most approved bon-mots.”