98 Mr. William Samuel Lilly [March 13 



are not real." I do not think Bulls necessarily do that. When 

 Sir Boyle Eoche told the Irish House of Commons that he wished a 

 certain bill, then before that august assembly, at the bottom of the 

 bottomless pit, he certainly produced a Bull, and a very fine one ; but 

 as certainly his aspiration does not admit apparent relations that are 

 not real. It appears to me that a Bull may perhaps be defined — in 

 so difficult and subtle a matter I don't like to dogmatise — as a con- 

 tradiction in terms which conveys a real meaning. I observe in 

 passing — and I hope I may not in so doing seem to be lacking in 

 justice to Ireland — that the claim sometimes made on behalf of that 

 country to a sort of monopoly of Bulls is untenable. Excellent Bulls 

 are produced by people of other countries ; as, for example, by the 

 Austrian officer, mentioned by Schopenhauer, when he observed to 

 a guest staying in the same country house, " Ah, you are fond of 

 solitary walks, so am I ; let us take a walk together : " or by the 

 Scotchman who told a friend that a common acquaintance had 

 declared him unworthy to black the boots of a certain person, and 

 who in reply to his remark, " Well, I hope you took my part," said, 

 " Of course I did, I said you were quite worthy to black them : " or 

 again, by a well-known English judge, who when passing sentence 

 on a prisoner convicted on all the counts of a long indictment, 

 observed, " Do you know, sir, that it is in my power to sentence you 

 for these many breaches of the laws of your country, to a term of 

 penal servitude far exceeding your natural life." 



There is yet another variety of the Ludicrous, upon which I 

 ehould like to say a few words — Parody. A Parody is a composition 

 which sportively imitates some other composition. I suppose that, 

 in the majority of cases, the object, or at all events, the effect of the 

 imitation is to cast a certain amount of ridicule upon the original. 

 *' What should be great you turn to farce " complains the honest 

 farmer to his wife, in Prior's amusing poem, ' The Ladle.' Well, it 

 must be confessed that this is what a Parody too often does. But 

 this need not be so. A Parody must necessarily be sportive, or it 

 would not belong to the great family of the Ludicrous; but the 

 laughter, or the smile, which it excites need not be at the expense 

 of the composition imitated. Pope speaks of his imitation of one of 

 the ' Satires ' of Horace as a Parody : but the laugh which he raises 

 does not fall upon Horace. So., you will remember, in the ' Dunciad ' 

 he most effectively parodies certain noble lines of Denham's ' Cooper's 

 Hill ' — lines addressed by that poet to the river Thames : — 



" could I flow like thee, and make thy stream 

 My great example, as it is my theme ! 

 Though deep yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull, 

 Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full." 



Fine verses, indeed, are these : perhaps the finest example of that 

 strength with which Pope, in a well-known line, rightly credits 



