Page:The Cornhill magazine (Volume 1).djvu/87

 Father Prout's Inaugurative Ode

TO THE AUTHOR OF "VANITY FAIR."

I.

Ours is a faster, quicker age: Yet erst at homely Wakefield Vicarage, While Lady from the West End glozes Mid the , Fudge! cries Squire , Much to the wonder of young greenhorn. Such word of scorn ill Matches the "Wisdom Fair" thy whim proposes To hold on.

II.

With Fudge, or Blarney, or the "Thames on Fire!" Treat not thy buyer; But proffer good material— A genuine Cereal, Value for twelvepence, and not dear at twenty. Such wit replenishes thy Horn of Plenty!

III.

Nor wit alone dispense, But sense: And with thy sparkling Xerez Let us have Ceres. Of loaf thou hast no lack, Nor set, like zany, forth, With lots of sack, Of bread one pennyworth.

IV.

Sprightly, and yet sagacious, Funny, yet farinaceous, Dashing, and yet methodical— So may thy periodical, On this auspicious morn, Exalt its horn, Thron'd on the !

V.

Of aught that smacks of sect, surplice, or synod, Be thy grain winnow'd!       Nor deign to win our laugh With empty chaff. Shun aught o'er which dullard or bigot gloats; Nor seek our siller With meal from Or flour of.