The Reliques Of Father Prout - Vol I

FATHER PR OUT, of atcrsrasf H, in tty muU ot COLLECTED AND ARRANGJED BY OLIVER YORKE, Esa-T t S 5v - rtriVcMci ALFRED CROQUIS, ESQ. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. aliquis nostris ex ossilms AUCTOE - jtEneid. iv. LONDON JAMES FRASER, 215 REGENT STREET. 1836. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. VAGK FATHER PROUT S APOLOGY FOR LENT HIS DEATH, OB SEQUIES, AND AN ELEGY 1 A PLEA FOR PILGRIMAGES SIR WALTER SCOTT S VISIT TO THE BLARNEY STONE 17 THE GROVES OF BLARNEY 90 THE WATERGRASSHILL CAROUSAL M DEAN SWIFT S MADNESS A TALE OF A CHURN ., 102 THE ROGUERIES OF TOM MOORE, . quot. ., .211 LITERATURE AND THE JESUITS ., , ... 265 VERT-VERT, A POEM, BY GRESSET 304 Vlll PREAMBLE. of the Alexandrian Library, that books were a sort of physic giving us thereby to under stand that like other patent medicines, they should be accompanied with copious cc directions for use, quot to obviate sundry and sometimes fatal blunders. In this case we would fain supply the desiderated TrpoXeyo eva ourselves, were we not apprehensive of being charged with exces sive presumption in fancying ourselves adequate to a task of such delicacy, merely because we happen to be the editors of these C Reliques. quot The attempt might place us in a position which we would, if possible, endeavour to eschew hav ing profitably studied an instructive fable of La Fontaine, viz. fe Udne qui portait les reliques. quot liv. v. fab. 14. Nevertheless, it is not our intention, in giving utterance to such very rational regret, to insinu ate that the present production of the lamented writer is unfinished, abortive, or incomplete on the contrary, our interest prompts us to pro nounce it perfect as far as it goes. It requires, in point of fact, no extrinsic matterand Prout is an author will be found what he was in the PREAMBLE. ix flesh i. e. c amp lt r totus tares atque rotundus. quot Still, , a suitable introduction, furnished by a kindred genius, would in our idea be, if not useful, some what ornamental. The Pantheon of republican Rome, however perfect in the simple design of its primitive architecture, derived a supplementary grace from the portico superaclded by Agrippa. All that remains for us to say, under the cir cumstances, is to deprecate the evil constructions which clumsy quot journeymen quot may hereafter put on the work. In our opinion, it can bear none. The readers of quot Fraser s Magazine quot will recognise these twelve Papers as having been originally put forth, under our auspices, in one year s consecutive Numbers of cc Regina, quot L e. from the 1st of April, 1834, to the recurrence of that significant date in 1835. For reprinting them in their present shape we might fairly allege the urgent quot request of friends, quot had not the epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot made that formula too ridi culous we will therefore content ourselves by stating, that we merely seek to justify, by this undertaking, the confidential trust reposed in us by the parish of Watergrasshill. Much medita X PREAMBLE. ting on the materials that fill quot the chest and daily more impressed with the value of so rare a character as our author must appear to all con noisseurs, we thought it a pity that his wisdom should be suffered to evaporate in monthly squibs. What impression could, in sooth, be made on the public mind by such ephemeral explosions Never on the dense mass of readers Bombar dinio tells us can isolated and random shots produce the effect of aregular feu de peloton. For this reason we have placed in juxtaposition and arranged in these two volumes as in a dovMe tier our files of mental musketry, determined to secure a simultaneous discharge. The hint, perT haps, of right belongs to the ingenious Ficschi...