CEEFF COA CHITECT "We have no hesitation whatever in expressing our conviction that the opinions of Mr. Sprouts claim and deserve a considerably higher rank than the writings of Artemus Ward, The reader will not go far before he discovers something else than mere surface-fun. The quaint, odd utterances are those of a profoundly sensitive man. So admirable-80 full of smart satire, kindly fun, and clevor writing-are the essays, that we cannot do less than cordially recommend the book to our readers."London Review. MR. SPROUTS DAS HIS OPINIONS. Crown 8vo, toned "His opinions are always sensible, and at times expressed with fervent eloquence. His humour, too, is very genuine, and his satire keen as a razor. He is supposed to be a costermonger with a tendency to rushing into print, and eventually he also rushes into Parliament. His best papers, however, are those descriptive of a formal dinner-party in Belgrave Square, his own courtship, a Saturday at the Crystal Palace, and the Derby-day. And yet the palm must be assigned to his bitter, pathetic, vehement denunciation of prize-fighting, which in its way is simply perfect. It is wisdom masquerading in fools' motley."-Leader, Jan. 18th, 1868. "We recommend the public to read this little volume, and say whether new and true humorist-of the school, perhaps, of Artemus Ward, but thoroughly original and self-sufficing-has not sprung up among us. This is indeed a rare little book, and ought to prove a literary success." -Morning Star. "There is a good deal of solid truth in "Mr. Sprouts," and his humour is hearty and contagious. "Sprouts" may be rough, but he is never vulgar; indeed, the roughness is only at times but a thin disguise of feelings of the deepest pathos."-Public Opinion. :OHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, 74 & 75 PICCADILLY. ARE THE TEAS AND COFFEES SUPPLIED BY PHILLIPS AND COMPANY, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL TEA MERCHANTS, 8 KING WILLIAM STREET, CITY, STRONG TO FINE BLACK TEAS, 1s. 6d., 1s. 10d., 2s., 2s. 4d., 2s. 6d. IMPORTANT FACT.-PHILLIPS and CO. have NO AGENTS. CHOICE PURE COFFEES, 1s., 1s. 1d., 1s. 2d., 1s. 3d., 1s. 4d. A GENERAL PRICE CURRENT POST FREE. SUGARS AT MARKET PRICES. As a Convenient Sample of our Tea we recommend the following: A CHINESE CADDY, containing 16 lbs. of really good BLACK TEA, sent Carriage Free to any Railway Station or Market Town in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales, on receipt of 40s., by PHILLIPS & CO., Tea Merchants, 8 King William Street, City, London, E.C. PHILLIPS & CO. send all Goods CARRIAGE FREE within eight miles; and send Teas, Coffees, and Spices CARRIAGE FREE to any Railway Station or Market Town in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Wales, if to the value of Forty Shillings or upwards. PHILLIPS AND CO. have NO CONNECTION with any house in WORCESTER or SWANSEA oda bo ravibust be Co-operative-Store Keepers will do well to buy at the above prices. The reader who may desire to continue his acquaintance with other "WORLD WIDE AUTHORS," whose works are being produced in this inexpensive, yet (the publishers believe) readable edition-is informed that the following can be obtained through any bookseller, or by direct application lo the publishers :— vi THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING. BOOK X. N WHICH THE HISTORY GOES FORWARD ABOUT TWELVE HOURS. CHAPTER I. Containing instructions very necessary to be perused by modern critics. EADER, it is impossible we should know what sort of person thou wilt be; for, perhaps, thou may'st be as learned in human mature as Shakespeare himself was, and, peraps, thou may'st be no wiser than some of s editors. Now lest this latter should be the case, we think proper, before we go any farther together, to give thee a few wholesome admonitions, that thou may'st not as crossly misunderstand and misrepresent us, 36 some of the said editors have misunder#bood and misrepresented their author. First, then, we warn thee not too hastily to condemn any of the incidents in this our history as impertinent and foreign to our main design, because thou dost not immechately conceive in what manner such incidant may conduce to that design. This work may, indeed, be considered as a great creation of our own; and for a little reptile of a critic to presume to find fault with any of its parts, without knowing the manner in which the hole is connected, and before he comes to the final catastrophe, is a most presumptuous ebsurdity. The allusion and metaphor we have here made use of we must acknowledge to be infinitely too great for our occasion; but there is, indeed, no other which is at all adequate to express the difference between author of the first rate and a critic of the west. Another caution we would give thee, my good reptile, is, that thou dost not find out too near a resemblance between certain characters here introduced, as, for instance, between the landlady who appears in the seventh book and her in the ninth. Thou art to know, friend, that there are certain characteristics, n which most individuals of every profession d occupation agree. To be able to preserve ese characteristics, and at the same time to rersify their operations, is one talent of a good writer. Again, to mark the nice distinc n between two persons actuated by the ne vice or folly is another; and as this last VOL. II. talent is found in very few writers, so is the true discernment of it found in as few readers; though, I believe the observation of this forms a very principal pleasure in those who are capable of the discovery: every person, for instance, can distinguish between Sir Epicure Mammon and Sir Fopling Flutter; but to note the difference between Sir Fopling Flutter and Sir Courtly Nice, requires a more exquisite judgment: for want of which, vulgar spectators of plays very often do great injustice in the theatre; where I have sometimes known a poet in danger of being convicted as a thief, upon much worse evidence than the resemblance of hands hath been held to be in the law. In reality, I apprehend every amorous widow on the stage would run the hazard of being condemned as a servile imitation of Dido, but that happily very few of our playhouse critics understand enough of Latin to read Virgil. In the next place, we must admonish thee, my worthy friend (for, perhaps, thy heart may be better than thy head) not to condemn a character as a bad one, because it is not perfectly a good one. If thou dost delight in these models of perfection, there are books enough written to gratify thy taste; but as we have not, in the course of our conversation, ever happened to meet with any such person, we have not chosen to introduce any such here. To say the truth, I a little question whether mere man ever arrived at this consummate degree of excellence, as well as whether there hath ever existed a monster bad enough to verify that in Juvenal: nor do I, indeed, conceive the good purposes served by inserting characters of such angelic perfection, or such diabolical depravity, in any work of invention: since from contemplating either, the mind of man is more likely to be overwhelmed with sorrow and shame, than to draw any good uses from such patterns; for in the former instance he may be both concerned and ashamed to seo a pattern of excellence, in his nature, which he may reasonably despair of ever arriving at; and in contemplating the latter, he may be no less affected with those uneasy sensa tions, at seeing the nature, of which he is a Whose yices are not allayed with a single virtue.' B |