SPECIMENS OF IRISH FAITH. 59 



it lends strength to the weak, confidence to the bashful, and eloquence 

 to the silent. Even misers may experience the vast advantage of 

 drinking, though at their own expense; as they will be amply repaid 

 for the money laid out in wine, by often having the satisfaction of 

 seeing their heaps grow double before their eyes. I could, as will 

 be readily admitted, fill whole volumes on this interesting topic ; but 

 not having wet my lips since I sat down, I can only find time for an 

 original song, composed by me, not under the inspiration of Phoebus, 

 but of Bacchus : 



SONG. 



LET the soldier still talk of his honour and fame, 



Let him buy them with death if he will, 

 Since fame's but a bauble and honour a name, 



The Bottle shall comfort me still. 



Oh, let him still follow where glory leads on, 



For a shade let him die in his prime ; 

 Let me, less ambitious, when daylight is done, 



O'er the Bottle kill nothing but time. 



Tell me not of friendship, true friends there are none, 



Take warning and bid them adieu ; 

 For soon will you find, when like summer-flies gone, 



No friend like the Bottle is true. 

 Let the faint-hearted lover still pine in despair, 



Let him weep o'er his doubts and his fears ; 

 Oh, had he learnt wisdom, he'd drive away care 



With the Bottle's more genuine tears. 



Then no longer the vows of feigned friendship attend, 



Sue no more to a pitiless lass ; 

 So warm as the Bottle there is not a friend, 



Nor a mistress so sweet as the Glass. 



HOGSHEAD. 



SPECIMENS OF IRISH FAITH. 



" GET up, Paddy a cushla," said Cathaleen O'Hanlahon to her 

 husband, who lay snoring on his straw feather bed ; " get up, I say, 

 do that, an' go down to yer confesshin ; there's all the boys in the 

 parish runnin' away down to Father Mulcahy at the chappie, an* he 

 forgivin' 'em, an' makin' 'em all as clane as new born infants, wid the 

 holy water an' the absolushin ; an' why would'nt you go, an' get it, 

 like the rest, I'd like to know? Arra, thin, do get up, there's a 

 jewel ; an' go down, an' tell your sins ; the niver a one of yez has 

 bent a knee to a priest since it's your own you made me ; an' that's a 

 good sivin year', come Easther, plaise God. So make haste up, an' 

 run down for the absolushin, while it's a goin' ; an' sure there's the 

 next fair comin', when yer oath will be out aginst the whishkey. An' 

 who knows what 'ud come at the bit iv a hubabaloo, that's to go, an j 

 afore that same is over ; for the Twomeys an' the O'Gallaghers are 



