Some Cranks and their Crotchets 443 



" Hark, hear that distant boo-oo-oo, 



As, walking by moonlight, 



He whistles, instructing Carlo 



To be still, and not bite." 



But even this lofty flight of inspiration is out- 

 flown by Mr. John Landis, who was limner and 

 draughtsman as well as poet. In his " Treatise on 

 Magnifying God " (New York, 1843) he gives 

 us an engraved portrait of himself surrounded by 

 ministering angels, and accompanies it by an ode 

 to himself, one verse of which will suffice : 



" With Messrs. Milton, Watts, and Wesley, 

 Familiar thy Name will e'er be. 

 Of America's Poets thou 

 Stand'st on the foremost list now ; 

 On the pinions of fame does shine, 

 Landis ! brightened by ev'ry line, 

 From thy poetic pen in rhyme, 

 Thy name descends to the end of time." 



Immortality of fame is something desired by 

 many, but attained by few. Physical immortality 

 is something which has hitherto been supposed to 

 be inexorably denied to human beings. The phrase 

 " All men are mortal " figures in text-books of 

 logic as the truest of truisms. But we have lately 

 been assured that this is a mistake. It is only an 

 induction based upon simple enumeration, and the 

 first man who escapes death will disprove it. So, 

 at least, I was told by a very downright person 



