Bentley's Miscellany Volume 14

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1843 edition. Excerpt: ...joy steals o'er the face of trouble, And folks with hardly half an eye see double! Even old, hell-daring, weather-beaten sinners, When moved by thee, in grace become beginners! ' Little thou heedest where thy head is laid: To thee the bog is as the bed of down; Little thou mindest how thy clothes are made, Small thought hast thou of cloak, or cap, or gown; For points of form thou carest not a pin, But at the chimney wouldst as soon come in, Ay! just as soon as at the opening door. The pelting storm may drench thee o'er and o'er, The storm, the snow, the hail around may fall, --Still, still, my fearless spouse, thou smilest at them all!" We cannot afford space to quote the whole of this capital address; but those who please to refer to " Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy " will find this, with many other excellent Irish compositions, most ably translated by Mr. Furlong, Mr. Dalton, and others. VOL. XIV. Z With one or two illustrations on the subject of the ode, we must conclude. The practice, satirized by the bard, of allowing children to become inured to habits of intemperance " ere they had counted even to their twelfth year," may astonish a sober Englishman, who does not " take his punch after dinner." But, as an Irish gentleman once observed to us, " How would a man ever be able to take his three or four-and-twenty tumblers of punch at a sitting, if he hadn't made his head in time?" And we confess the query was too difficult for us to answer. Mr. Croker, in his interesting work on " The political Songs of Ireland," mentions several laughable instances of people " makin' their heads;" and we think the following might he nicluded with them: --In the course of the trial, M'Garahan v. Ma-guire, (the celebrated Catholic controversialist, ) for seduction, it...