1826.] Familiaritiet. — Jest Books. 249 



I love these books, not merely for the good things which they contain 

 — the sparks from many fires — but for themselves. They present a 

 finer picture of society than dramatist ever grouped. Let us suppose 

 every jest a human being (and this, taking the good with the bad, is 

 paying a compliment to mj'self and my fellow-creatures ). Observe how 

 promiscuously they are linked together — how the " physician" pairs off 

 with the '" gi-ave-digger," and the " libertine" with the "nun." Observe, 

 too, that the order of succession is not regulated by intrinsic excellence, 

 but by external fitness — the vulgar taking precedence of the polite. 

 Mark how this poor, pointless joke is reported to have been spoken, to 

 ears "innocent of the knowledge," by lips which, like the little girl's in 

 the fairy tale, uttered only pearls and diamonds ; w hile, on the other 

 hand, this gem of precious price is affirmed to have been dug from a soil, 

 that never yielded any thing but its native clay. We find however this 

 inconformity : that the distinct tendency of the jest may be ascertained 

 from the head under which it ranges ; while the tendencies of human 

 action are a secret even unto those who pretend to have " j)lucked out 

 the heart of its mystery." 



And what is the vain-glory which, on every side, meets the eye of phi- 

 losophy, but " a jest's prosperity ?' ^^'hat are the tomes of chronology, 

 and illuminated MSS ? What the stupendous piles of books whereof 

 men have built their Babel — have formed too often, instead of a temple 

 and a citadel for the mind, a dungeon and a labyrinth ? The gossamer 

 lightness of a jest shall outweigh many folios. And what are the records 

 of martial deed and knightly achievement — the escutcheon of the noble, 

 and the dubious readings of the learned — the tropes of the astrologer 

 and the dreams of the metaj)h3sician ? These are but as crude conceits 

 in the jest-book of Time. Poetry has long been known for a jest — albeit, 

 a glorious one. Can the scenes of Sliakspeare be regarded but as a 

 series of the best jests in the world, whether they be of laughter or of 

 tears ? What a touching pathos is in Hamlet's recollection of " poor 

 Yorick" — "I knew him, Horatio; njelloxv (>f infinite jest!" Itmaj'yetbe 

 submitted, as a point of inquiry, to the phrenologist, whether the skull of 

 old Jack Falstaff, or that of Napoleon, presents the most infallible evidence 

 of the spirit of true jesting. Who shall claim to be installed as Prince 

 of all the Jesters, when such opposing qualifications alike centre in a cap 

 and bells? But the historj' of all genius lies between a jest and a moral. 

 The tombstone itself is but a melancholy jest-book ; and the chiselled 

 cherub that surmounts it, a hard-featured Glomus. Do the ruins of 

 Thebes present a les* tangible jest than the notions of the waiting-maid 

 of an English lady of rank, whom a French traveller described as saun- 

 tering carelessly among them, in a blue silk spencer, and with an um- 

 brella in her hand ? Or rather, do they not stare us in the face, and im- 

 press us with the same trite reflection, as the finis of a delightful book, 

 while we are reading the last line of it? — 3Ien toil, slay, think, feel, 

 live and die in jest — "poison in jest." Who, then, that shall reflect on 

 these things, but must inwardly feel the truth cf what rare Ben declared of 

 old — not merely that " life is a jest," but that " all things show it I" 



M. M. ScK Series.— YoL. I. No. 3. 2 K 



