That I might re-enjoy that peace that's fled,

And then the pleasant task I shall fulfil, And name my darling with a ready will. "A. :—

Will Theodora's cruelty exact,

So many slaves be kept upon the rack,

Whilst she takes pleasure, which to its keenest

darts,

To strike deep wounds in their retentive hearts ? The most tyrannic of your sex aspire,

One conquest only at one time t' acquire ;
But you, by your mysterious wit and sense,
Keep several at once in darkness dense;
Dissolve the charm, and point out by your eye,
Which must the happy be, and which must die."
Q. :—

What joys-extatick joys, possess my heart,
What raptures are diffused through every part?
Pleasures refined my sprightly soul now move,
To hear my dear enchanter own his love,
Ravishing views it gives my mind, when I
With pleasure future scenes of bliss espy.
Love now with transport rules within my breast,
Before with mighty weights of grief opprest;
Farewell all anxious cares, now I address
My conquer'd conqueror with assured success.

Are all Apollo's glorious offspring mine?
Are those blest youths devoted to my shrine ?
A bliss too great a blushing maid to crown,
When that reward from one's too high renown;
And must young Theodora now direct

Her self to one, and the bright rest reject;

Pardon her crime who thinks she has engrossed

More numerous charms than all the choir can

boast;

'Tis then o'ercome, winged with desire I fly

To his fair arms who writ the last reply.

"A. :—

Filled with tumultuous joys, the youth we left, Almost of life, by too much life bereft,

Whose mounting soul some fair Theodora raised;

By lines more easily admired than praised,
Since the kind fair resolved to ease the pain
(Howe'er might hap) o' th' next replying swain ;
Since equally each for a charmer burns,

We've hopes we now shall all be loved by turns.
Chance threw the longing swain upon her

breast,

Chance equally may favour all the rest;

If so propitious to our wishes she,

Next Theodora shall our Goddess be,

Then a new system to the world we'll show,
Of love e'er this none e'er were blest to know,
That he entire in a divided heart

May reign, and like the soul himself exert,
Be all in all, and all in every part.

CHAPTER XII.

QUAINT QUESTIONS AND AMUSING ANSWErs.

"I have got a conundrum in my head and cannot get it out. I shall certainly crack my brains in searching out questions for you." -The British Apollo, Vol. II., p. 505.

"Q. Apollo, you are a damn'd sly dog, for when you have questions you cannot answer, you put it off with a jeer upon the querist; now, with what face can you answer this?

"A. If the querist were arrived to years of discretion, which perhaps he may not attain should he live these fifty years, he would discern that such questions are only worthy of such solutions; this we may answer with a very modest face; but had we occasion to insert such ridiculous positions as he offers, we would ask the favour of him to lend us his."

"Q. Suppose our grandmother's grandmother was first cousin to King James the First, may we not, as we see occasion, justly boast we have royal blood in our veins ?

"A. We doubt not, før after so many descents and mixtures there could remain but little; and then if any of you, up to your great-grandmother, have been let blood, it being the genuine quality of that blood to mount upwards, 'tis a thousand to one but it hath all of it long since spurted out of your veins."

"Q. I find, Gentlemen, ye are excellent at solving deep questions, pray tell me how a calf which fell into a well at an inn at Laighton Busard, in Bedfordshire, shou'd be taken up again at another inn in the same town? which I have heard by the neighbours affirm'd for a truth.

"A. If the well at Laighton Busard is not quite unfathomable, 'twill be no difficult matter to find out the depth of your calf's-head question; for 'tis possible there may be some subterraneous passage from one well to the other, and the poor frighted traveller might probably give notice to the people of the other inn, by an exclamation or two in his own language, of the arrival of so odd a guest by such an uncommon road as that passed thro'; this may satisfy the querist if his question contains. downright matter of fact; if not, he must consider that Apollo, being so little conversant underground, may reasonably expect to lose his way in