256 Familiarities— Anonymous. [ Serr. 
harmless earth”—monopolizing the entire world of sounds and shadows 
«the space of the infinite heaven, its stars and starers—and the whole 
host (or nearly) of the periodical pillars of literature at the present day. 
It lays claim to a moiety of human customs and character, and exhibits 
man in the situation of Death and the Lady in the picture ; one side is 
naked and without a name, while the other flaunts in silken sounds that 
lave no appropriate texture or consistency. The geographers of hu- 
manity have not calculated the cross-roads : many a pleasant creek and 
corner—many a rural niche, withhere and there glimpses of picturesque, 
are omitted in the map. Shall we only appreciate what is noted and 
registered, and shut our hearts to every thing else? There is assuredly 
a new world of names to discover, of which posterity will be the Columbus. 
For if we glance cursorily at the misnomers on the page of society, 
the transpositions of terms, the nicknames and the aliases, we must 
admit that, in reality, there are few things or persons to which the term 
Anonymous may not be correctly applied—There is, by the way, an 
anonymous philosophy slumbering in the veins of man when he is little 
aware of it. It is manifested in a notice which is (or was) to be seen at 
the gate of a church-yard on the Surrey side of Waterloo Bridge :— 
« Wanted some good earth in this church-yard.” This is as delicate as 
the undertaker’s “ Lodgings to Let” stuck upon a coffin. Yet people 
write these things without suspicion, and rehearse them with complacency 
—pass jokes on death, and the warm pulses of life are not chilled for an 
instant. It is certain we are a race of anonymous philosophers. 
Again and again it may be asked, what is there in a name? and how is 
it that the wise world is dazzled and governed by asound? Man is really 
something more than a Macadamized barbarian cast forth upon the 
highway of power: then why should the rattling of a ponderous title 
shake or disturb him ?: Let him not trust such specious prologues, but 
pass on to the “imperial theme.” Or if he must be swayed by terms, 
Jet him not count the letters and criticize the tone, but let him weigh 
the names of Brutus and Cesar, and ascertain which means king and 
which commonwealth. Above all, let him cherish a recollection of those 
without which all others are null and void—those which are enumerated 
by a favourite bard, and should be wedded to the memory for ever :— 
“You of all names the sweetest and the best ; 
You Muses, Books, and Liberty, and Rest ; 
You Gardens, Fields, and Woods.” 
EPIGRAM 
On. the proper Use of the Eyes.* 
Certes, the Eyes are not to see with— 
No more than wives were made to be with, 
Or milk was sent us to drink tea with. 
Some sages hint they’re formed to weep. with, 
Others, to cast a look like sheep with ;— 
It’s my belief they’re meant—to sleep with. 
* Vide-M. M., page 165... 
