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and, from the great height at which they were to be viewed, were meant to excite admiration by the grandeur of general effect, rather than the exquisiteness of minute detail. Imagine the awful beauty of the statues within the temple, where both were to be combined! Conceive the stupendous symmetry of the Minerva, thirty-nine feet high-the still more majestic proportions of the Olympian Jupiter, executed for the Eleans!"

How long this enumeration might have continued it is impossible to say; but it was rudelybroken, and the whole fabric of my reverie demolished, by the voice of the Museum porter,-" Sir, you're the only gemman left, and we always locks the doors at six."Once more I surveyed the marble upon which the living eyes of all the illustrious persons I have mentioned had been formerly fixed, as well as those of Cicero, Pliny, Pausanias, and Plutarch, who have recorded their visits to the Parthenon; and then, with slow steps, I quitted the building. On reaching the street, I still doubted whether I was in the Acropolis, the Agora, or before the theatre of Bacchus; when a lamplighter, scampering by me, skipped up his ladder, and, by the light of his link, I discovered, printed on a black board, "GREAT RUSSELL STREET, BLOOMSBURY."

NEHEMIAH MUGGS.

Most courteous Reader, pray permit the Fool
To doff his cap and bells for your politeness,
In sparing him a niche released from rule,
And all pedantic ligature and tightness;
Where he may freely, in his motley papers,
Cut reverend jokes, and well-establish'd capers.—
He has a lengthy tale, which, when enroll'd,
Requires some scores of pages to uphold-

(One Mister Muggs is hero of the poem ;)
And as no hero of the stage struts on,
Without a flourish for his Chaperon,

Ours shall be usher'd by a pompous proem. So for your ample solace and instruction, Take this grave sample of an

INTRODUCTION.

No sweet Arcadian pipe is mine-
Such as of old the tuneful Nine,
On rosy banks of Helicon,
Committed to some favour'd son,
Whose wild and magic melodies,
From banks of flowers,

And myrtle bowers,

Bade nymphs and sylvan boys arise,

To form, with laughing loves, an earthly Paradise.

I may not, with the classic few,

Snatch inspiration from the Muses' hill;

Nor, raptured, quaff poetic dew

From Aganippe's rill.—

Vales and mountains,

Grots and fountains,

The haunt of heroes, and the poet's theme-
Sense inviting, soul delighting,

Burst on my vision like a glorious dream.—

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But, ah! as soon to fade away,

For Christian knights demand my lay.

Not steel-clad Crusaders, with lances and shields,
The sparkling invaders of Palestine's fields ;
Who, marching o'er deserts, or vineyards and balm,
In the blaze of the sun, or the shade of the palm,
Planted the cross amid havoc and death,

On the sands of Damascus and Nazareth.-
Whose helmeted leaders gave charge through the cedars,
At sound of the trumpets on Lebanon's mount,
And roll'd man and horse of the Saracen force

Down to the waters of Galilee's fount.

Fearless were they, by night or by day,
Of the infidel legions that barr'd the way;

Who, with turban and beard, and scymitars rear'd,
Through whirlwinds of sand on their enemies dash'd;
And gloried to fall on the breach of the wall,

Where the crescented flag o'er the battlements flash'd.

Nor sing I of the knights whose fame
Minstrels and troubadours proclaim ;
Who, pricking o'er enchanted ground,
By forest dark, or moated mound,
Where captive beauty sigh'd,
Spite of the guardian dragon's yell,
Smote the black giant grim and fell,
Rescued the nymph from wizard spell,
And claim'd the blushing bride.-

Alas! no fancy-woven wreaths

Their perfume o'er my pathway shed,

And no melodious spirit breathes

Wild inspiration o'er my head.

Here we must close our proem (what a pity!)

And tumble from Parnassus to

THE CITY.

Bright broke the morning in the blaze

Of London's own romantic traits.

And now (so great Hippona pleased)

Two coaches rattled past;

Their bugle-horns the guardmen seized,
And from their pigmy throttles squeezed
An angry giant's blast.—

Now let the reader take a view
Of Norton Falgate, and pursue
Each peak-topp'd tenement to where
A squat snug man, with sable hair,
And dirty night-cap, he may see,
Brought to the window by the roar,
Which might have split the scull he bore,
Unless, indeed, 'twas crack'd before,

As sculls like his are apt to be.

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O reader, fix your eyes where I have said;
For from that window peeps my hero's head!—
Yes, yes; 'tis Nehemiah Muggs-

A name that would inspirit slugs!
With poet-frensy make a mite

Leap from his cheese of Stilton,

And every native oyster write
As if he were a Milton!
But see, he quits the attic story,

So I'll prepare to do the same,
And in plain English lay before ye
The birth, profession, and the glory,
Of him who own'd this classic name.-

His pedigree was old, no doubt,
Only he could not make it out;
Though surely 'tis self-evident,
That he might boast a great descent.-
Some who are learned heralds can tell
Men's ancestry from shield, or mantle :-
If like Elijah's mantle, theirs
Entail'd its virtues on its heirs,
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Bidding the wearer still inherit
Its primitive possessor's merit;
Why then some nobles would appear
Just the reverse of what they are.-
But all NE.'s claim to ancestry
Some genealogists deny,

And prove by treatise erudite

He was a human aërolite,

Ejected from some moon volcano,

(Though that is more than I or they know), Where still are kept the wits of Muggs, In one of Ariosto's jugs.—

If he had chosen to have had 'em,

He might have bought descents from Adam;
And proved his folly and his blood
By pedigrees from old King Lud,
Such as the College keeps by dozens,

With blanks for Norman sires and cousins.

Birth cannot give our faults redemption;
'Tis an excitement, not exemption.-
Intrinsic honesty and knowledge

Emblaze themselves, without the College;
While herald honours on the base

Do but degrade their wearers more,
As sweeps, whom May-day trappings grace,
Show ten times blacker than before.

As to his trade our hero held
Chattels and goods by few excell'd;
Such as brooms, pipkins, treacle, tops,
Tobacco, brickdust, lollipops,

Gilt gingerbread, and penny trumpets,
Red herrings, blacking, snuff, and crumpets:

In short, the catalogue to stop,

He kept a thriving chandler's shop.

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