114 SHARP PRACTICE. 



HEADS, HANDS, AND HEELS. 



ON reading the heading of the following pages many 

 may indulge in a little satire, and say, " Oh ! we see 

 HIE'OVER is driven to extremities." Now, if I were 

 under any engagement or even promise to supply a 

 certain quantity of pages to my Publisher, I have not 

 a sufficiently good opinion of the fecundity of my 

 brain to doubt for a minute that I should very shortly 

 be driven to extremity ; but as this is in no way the 

 case, I beg to assure any one who has made such a 

 remark, that the shaft of his satire falls perfectly 

 innocuous, and though I do select the' extremities 

 of the human body as subjects to make a few observa- 

 tions upon, it is not the extremity of the case that 

 induces me to do so. 



The head, par excellence, is generally considered as 

 entitled to more respect than those other extremities 

 to which I have alluded ; not that I consider it is by 

 any means always entitled to this pre-eminence, for 

 we very often find it to be the least effective part of 

 many people. We have people with weak heads, and 

 shallow heads (and these great people too) ; nay, we 

 have had such things as even ministers with such 

 heads; and, " infandum Regina jubes renovare dolor em" 

 we have had kings and queens without any heads at 

 all; though, as I conclude, after the little ceremony 

 of decapitation had been gone through, the sovereignty 

 probably ceased. I must therefore most willingly 

 recall my assertion of there having been kings and 



