Page:Paul Clifford Vol 1.djvu/121

Rh "We will begin with the encouraging tickle. 'Although this work is full of faults; though the characters are unnatural, the plot utterly improbable, the thoughts hacknied, and the style ungrammatical, yet we would by no means discourage the author from proceeding; and in the mean while we confidently recommend his work to the attention of the reading public.'

"Take, now, the advising tickle.

"'There is a good deal of merit in these little volumes, although we must regret the evident haste in which they were written. The author might do better—we recommend him a study of the best writers,'—then conclude by a Latin quotation, which you may take from one of the mottoes in the Spectator.

"Now, young gentleman, for a specimen of the metaphorical tickle.

"'We beg this poetical aspirant to remember the fate of Pyrenæus, who attempting to pursue the Muses, forgot that he had not the wings of the goddesses, flung himself from the loftiest ascent he could reach, and perished.'

"This you see, Paul, is a loftier and more