THE * DEVIL-ON-THREE-STICKS.' 9 



the truth of the rule as against man, but to prove it 

 by an exception, in the case of one individual of the 

 species that he knows of. And the clear rectangular 

 pencil-work and the softening shades of the brush 

 of the accomplished artist-architect do their work 

 upon his eyes, like Vanity reflected in a mirror, as 

 he beholds (on pasteboard) the * Splendid Elevation,' 

 and then reads with delight in one corner of the 

 sketch, the ( exceedingly moderate Estimate." 1 Such 

 is ' the taper that has lighted fools,' each on his 

 solitary track, out of the beaten high-road of old 

 Experience, leading them on by the marsh-light 

 hope of individual exemption from the Common Lot. 

 And old men shake their heads, and only smile at 

 the sallies of youthful arrogance that rise and break 

 in succession upon the shore of life, and need no 

 reproach but that which their own sure ebb will 

 bring with it. 



And so they felt, and so they looked on me, in 

 the autumn of - - no, I dare not say how long 

 ago ! when the arrival of load after load of Drain- 

 ing-tiles gave parish notice of the attempt to drain 

 what Antiquity had pronounced undrainable, since 

 the Deluge. 



But why can't it be drained ? asked Greenhorns. 



Because there's no Fall! replied collective Wisdom. 



