1838-39. A CHEMICAL PUN. 177 



that would exactly please you ; and I shall be satisfied with in- 

 dicating a single advantage which such an engine would give 

 us for assisting our friends to comfortable abodes. You antici- 

 pate me, I am sure, and are already smiling ; I must, however, 

 write it. Don't you think, that by raising ourselves among the 

 clouds, high above every earthly thing, we should find it a most 

 easy matter to drop each friend into his or her ' niche' as the 

 balloon passed over it, just as the old gander opened his webfoot 

 and let Daniel O'Eourke descend, as he thought, to the ship 

 below, but in reality to the marine villa of an astonished whale, 

 who whipped him for his untimely intrusion. You might, per- 

 haps, sagely ask, if my machine were possessed of a safety-valve, 

 and if there were no risk of being blown up ; but such a risk is 

 effectually cared for by the patent wedding-cushions I have 

 devised for the use of aerial voyagers. Talking of blowing up, 

 I have lately devised a most excellent pun, which I shall here 

 record for your amusement, my dear sister, though to record so 

 foolish a thing, and gravely to find a place for it in this letter, 

 is very absurd; and moreover, puns, like mineral waters, are 

 very uncarriageable articles, and being amorphous, cannot be 

 warranted and marked ' this side upwards,' so as to insure their 

 going off with proper effect. That's the priming ; here's the 

 charge : Last Saturday, Mr. Graham, chancing to be illus- 

 trating the nature of flame, required one of Sir Humphiy Davy's 

 lamps. I went and asked Mr. Young, the assistant, for one. 

 He brought me one, adding, ' You had better trim it, and make 

 it burn well, or you'll get a blowing up.' ' Oh/ said I, after 

 smiling a few moments, ' I defy him to blow me up as long as I 

 have a safety lamp.' And while they all laughed and enjoyed 

 the chemical pun, I advised every assistant to provide himself 

 with one to ward off explosions." 



" February 1S39. 



" MY DEAR MOTHER, Wind, and storm, and bad weather, 

 and broken rudders, and maimed steamships, have failed in 

 their cunning conspiracy to keep us from communication with 

 each other, and I have resolved to celebrate the deliverance 

 from the plot by writing you a long letter. 



M 



