I faint - unlace my stays.
* * * * *
"'Now meet in groups the philosophic band,
Not in the porch, like those of ancient Greece,
But where the best Madeira is at hand
From thought the younger students to release
"'For Hoyle's disciples hold it as a rule
That youth for knowledge should full dearly pay,
Wherefore to make young cubs the fitter tool
Presuming sense by Lethean drafts they slay.
* * * * *
"'With all the fury of a tempest torn,
With execrations horrible to hear,
By all the wrath of disappointment borne,
The cards, their garments, hair, the losers tear.'
"The winner's unfeeling composure is described in another verse, and
"'Now dissipation reigns in varied forms
Now riot in the bowl the senses steeps,
Whilst nature's child, secure from passion's storms,
With tranquil mind in sweet oblivion sleeps.'
"It is to be hoped, for the honour of the ladies and gentlemen of old
Quebec, that 'Asmodeus' was under the malign influence of envy, hatred
and all uncharitableness when he wrote those cynical verses. If he
wrote the truth we cannot be too thankful that the Chloes and Cleoras
are dead and buried.
"Who was Miss Hannah MacCulloch? She was a young lady once; and, if
we may believe her panegyrist, was a beauty in her day. The acrostic
in her honor is anonymous, and occasion is taken in the course of it
to almost mention some other young ladies by the way of making a
climax of her charms.
