CERAMIC WARE. 219 



Considering that we are to treat of Ceramic Ware anon ; 

 of China ware and Majolica ; of old Sevres ware ; of bricks 

 and tiles, and all and everything that has been fashioned, or 

 may be fashioned in time to come, out of fictile clay ; con- 

 sidering this to be our theme, then e wherefore, O errant 

 scribe, all these transcendental sublimities about the condition 

 of dualism as inseparable from power f Pooh, pooh, Zoilus ! 



I do not seek to conciliate any man : the very philosophy 

 of dualism herein set forth prevents it. As a male creature 

 sensible of and sensitive to all the soft influences that radiate 

 ' in lines of force,' as Faraday might say, from ladies' eyes 

 I beseech the lovable fair sex to bear with the roundabout 

 vagaries of this rambling scribe for a season : I pray them 

 to grant me the delightful conceit, that out-Briareusing 

 Briareus I had as many arms as there are agreeable ladies 

 in the world, and an agreeable lady on each arm. I beseech 

 them to put confidence in this errant scribe, trusting him in 

 all things; following wheresoever he may lead. That con- 

 cession made, this errant roundabout scribe, on the faith of a 

 true knight, promises to lead his trusting fair ones to far 

 Cathay and Japan ; thence back to Dresden, calling at Ma- 

 jorca en routej to see how the Majolica potters advance in 

 their work. Then, time and space imposing no restraint, we 

 may just as well flash away to Babylon, while yet that city 

 still is young. Samian potters, too, we will see at work, not 

 omitting to get cartes de visite of the artists who decorated 

 Samian vases. Yes ! by and by, patience and confidence ex- 

 tended, everything that is proper for us to see we will see, 

 that can illustrate the progress of the beautiful Ceramic art, 

 the creations of which the fair sex admire above all earthly 

 objects next to jewels and pretty bonnets. 



Yes, trust this errant guide ! he knows whither he will 

 take you, and whither he will not. Not to the courts of 

 Louis Quatorze and Quinze, for example not to the Petit 

 Trianon; for, notwithstanding the old Sevres manufacture 



