ALFRED CROWQUILL'S REPROOF OP THE BRUTES.*
Gruffel Swillendrinken is gruff, and is a swiller and drinker; his name implies as much. Mr. Crowquill, for the benefit of his juvenile and other readers, brings him face to face with an ill-favoured gnome; and the gnome introduces him to a rational company of brutes, pro- posing to assimilate him to one of them in form, seeing that he has already, by his bad ways, forfeited the right to be consider- ed a human creature. But the rational brutes protest ; and prove, , by arguments as conclusive as the occasion demands, that not one I among them deserves to be stigmatized by having Gruffel assi- snilated to itself. Wherefore Gruffel gets home as best his legs will I carry him, cuts his bottle, and converts himself into a decent mem- ber of society. This apposite little tale is illustrated by Mr. Crow. quill, in his well-known manner, with coloured prints, of which the earlier section exhibits various phases of sottish goodfellowship, shaki- ness, and prostration, while the latter aims at characterizing the brutes- ' bear, donkey, hog, dog, &c.—which read him so needful a lesson. The former section has the more fun and point in it : for the latter, a well- grounded artistic knowledge of what the animals really are inform and character is indispensable before any humoristic adaptation of them can tell. The perfect master in that line was the French Granville : even the German Kaulbach is less thoroughly certain of his brutes as brutes, and so is more driven to have recourse to grotesqueness of accessory and manner when he would render them indicative of certain phases of human character.
0,- Greet Swillendrinken : or the Reproof of the Brutes. By Alfred Ormequiii Published by Griffith and Farran.
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