HOW TO MAKE AN ANTITHESIS.
Yous most telling humour is that which flows spontaneously, without being forced by the unconscious utterer ; and there was something very amusing the other eight in the serious playfulness of Sir ROBERT Nein, when- he dallied with the dangerous subject of popular recreations. Mr. EWART proposed to open the Regent's Park to the public ; and, so far from being horrified at the enormity of Cockney parties desecrating the groves before Sussex Place, or suburban lovers whispering mythological profanities to their sweet- hearts,—an impiety which the forests and streams would so na- turally provoke,—Sir ROBERT actually followed a step or two after that other Sir ROBERT, PEEL, and supported Mr. EWART'S propo- sition. He could not do so, however, without some sage caveat ; and accordingly he remarked, that he was not one of those who thought that parks would improve the morals of the people, although he thought that it would contribute to their innocent pleasures. This is very funny : it is a new invention in the art of the jester to split a truism in two, like a red herring, and turn it into an an- tithesis. Sir ROBERT is not bound by any physiological rules, which teach that a happy man is more likely to be a moral man than he who is miserable. Even the observance of the palpably physical duty of cleanliness has always been reckoned among the virtues " : the habit of breathing the pure air of heaven, fanned by trees and tempered by clear streams, must breed a wholesome dislike of the bad atmosphere of ill-ventilated and dirty homes ; and so parks may contribute directly, omitting all consideration of the vast effects of other kinds of influence, to promote one of the most necessary and difficult of all virtues for the poor. More might be done in that way than all Lord NORMANDY'S Drainage Bill can do, well-meant as the measure is.
Sir Rosser limas, however, is quite a raw follower of his practised namesake : he enters upon his new vocation with some embarrassment, which he tries to laugh off with a little pleasantry. Who would prevent him ?
Previous page
