ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



So one might go on, indefinitely, with the 

 paraphrase of this inimitable pictograph, but 

 one is loath to mangle its exquisite measures 

 with the clumsy makeshifts of an English 

 version. Even Professor Murray, whose 

 translations of Euripides should win him a 

 seat on Parnassus, declares that they only 

 dimly convey the beauty of the original. 

 How much more impossible is it to do jus- 

 tice to the delicate conceptions of our little 

 poets of beetledom. Suffice it to say, that 

 few contemporary writers sustain the inter- 

 est of their compositions more successfully 

 than it is done in this bosky Pictograph. 



Carping critics there may be who will in- 

 sinuate that certain passages, notably the 

 lines, 



Though I with wings as swift as dragon-flies 

 Or thoughts of dinner close at hand, 



are covert plagiarisms from Shakespeare; 

 but such a charge is manifestly absurd. 

 There is not one chance in a thousand that 

 any of the collaborators of this classic ever 

 heard of Shakespeare. The same answer 



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