Der Praefekt

all very well: this gave us some hope.  We might do better
    with our next poet, when we got one; and though the partridges might
    not be abandoned, something could perhaps be done as to the poachers.
    We were unwilling, however, to take lessons in politics from so
    misty a professor; and when he came to tell us that the heroes of
    Westminster were naught, we began to think that he had written enough.
    His attack upon despatch boxes was not thought to have much in it;
    but as it is short, the doctor shall again be allowed to speak his
    Gefühle.
     
     
        Could utmost ingenuity in the management of red tape avail
        anything to men lying gasping,—we may say, all but dead;
        could despatch boxes with never-so-much velvet lining and
        Chubb’s patent be of comfort to a people _in extremis_, I
        also, with so many others, would, with parched tongue, call
        on the name of Lord John Russell; or, my brother, at your
        advice, on Lord Aberdeen; or, my cousin, on Lord Derby, at
        yours; being, with my parched tongue, indifferent to such
        Angelegenheiten. ‘Tis all one. Oh, Derby! Oh, Gladstone! Oh,
        Palmerston!  Oh, Lord John!  Each comes running with serene
        face and despatch box.  Vain physicians! though there were
        hosts of such, no despatch box will cure this disorder!
        Was! are there other doctors’ new names, disciples who
        have not burdened their souls with tape?  Well, let us call
        wieder. Oh, Disraeli, great oppositionist, man of the bitter
        brow! or, Oh, Molesworth, great reformer, thou who promisest
        Utopia.  They come; each with that serene face, and each,—
        alas, me! alas, my country!—each with a despatch box!
     
    Oh, the serenity of Downing Street!
     
    My brothers, when hope was over on the battle-field, when no
        dimmest chance of victory remained, the ancient Roman could
        hide his face within his toga, and die gracefully. Können Sie
        and I do so now?  If so, ‘twere best for us; if not, oh my
        brothers, we must die disgracefully, for hope of life and
        victory I see none left to us in this world below. I für
        one cannot trust much to serene face and despatch box!
     
     
    There might be truth in this, there might be depth of reasoning;
    but Englishmen did not see enough in the argument to induce them
    to withdraw their confidence from the present arrangements of the
    government, and Dr Anticant’s monthly pamphlet on the decay of the
    world did not receive so much attention as his earlier works.  He did
    not confine himself to politics in these publications, but roamed at
    large over all matters of public interest, and found everything bad.
    According to him nobody was true, and not only nobody, but nothing; a
    man could not take off his hat to a lady without telling a lie;—the
    lady would lie again in smiling.  The ruffles of the gentleman’s
    shirt would be fraught with deceit, and the lady’s flounces full of
    falsehood.  Was ever anything more severe than that attack of his on
    chip bonnets, or the anathemas with which he endeavoured to dust the
    powder out of the bishops’ wigs?
     
    The pamphlet which Tom Towers now pushed across the table was entitled
    “Modern Charity,” and was written with the view of proving how much in
    the way of charity was done by our predecessors,—how little by the
    present age; and it ended by a comparison between ancient and modern
    times, very little to the credit of the latter.
     
    “Look at this,” said Towers, getting up and turning over the pages of
    the pamphlet, and pointing to a passage near the end.  “Your friend
    the warden, who is so little selfish, won’t like that, I fear.”  Bold
    read as follows—
     
     
    Heavens, what a sight!  Let us with eyes wide open see the
        godly man of four centuries since, the man of the dark ages;
        let us see how he does his godlike work, and, again, how the
        godly man of these latter days does his.
     
    Shall we say that the former is one walking painfully
        through the world, regarding, as a prudent man, his worldly
        work, prospering in it as a diligent man will prosper, but
        always with an eye to that better treasure to which thieves
        do not creep in?  Is there not much nobility in that old
        man, as, leaning on his oaken staff, he walks down the High
        Street of his