Page:The Curious Republic of Gondour, and Other Whimsical Sketches.djvu/38

24 rivals, or anything that comes handy, without violating faith with the reader.

Puns cannot be allowed a place in this department. Inoffensive ignorance, benignant stupidity, and unostentatious imbecility will always be welcomed and cheerfully accorded a corner, and even the feeblest humour will be admitted, when we can do no better; but no circumstances, however dismal, will ever be considered a sufficient excuse for the admission of that last and saddest evidence of intellectual poverty, the Pun.

M. T.