more laughable merely from its being irish, therefore we cannot make the propensity to laughter in one man the crite rion of what is ridiculous in another; though we have a precedent for this mode of judging in the laws of England, which are allowed to be the perfection of human reason. If a man swear, that his neighbour has put him in bodily fear, he may' have the cause of his terrour sent to jail ; thus the feelings. of the plaintiff become the measure of the defendant's guilt. As we cannot extend this convenient principle to all matters of taste, and all subjects of risibility, we are still compelled to acknowledge, that no accurate definition of a bull: has yet been given. The essence of an irish bull must be of the most ethereal nature, for notwithstanding the most indefatigable research it has hitherto es-. caped from analysis. The crucible always breaks in the long expected mo ment of projection: we have nevertheless

the courage to recommence the process in a new mode. Perhaps by ascertaining what it is not, we may at last discover what it is we must distinguish the genuine from the spurious, the original from all imitations, the indigenous from the exotic, in short it must be determined in what an irish bull essentially differs from a blunder, or in what irish blunders specifically differ from english blunders, and from those of all other nations. To elucidate these points, or to prove to the sa tisfaction of all competent judges, that they are beyond the reach of the human understanding, is the object of the following Essay concerning the nature of Bulls and

Blunders.

CHAPTER I.

Originality of Irish Bulls examined.

THE difficulty of selecting from the vulgar herd of irish bulls one, that shall be entitled to the prize, from the united merits of preeminent absurdity, and indisputable originality, is greater than hasty judges may imagine. Many bulls, reputed to be bred and born in Ireland, are of foreign extraction; and many more, supposed to be unrivalled in their kind, may be matched in all their capital points: for instance, there is not a more celebrated bull than Paddy Blake's. When Paddy heard an english gentleman speaking of the fine echo at the lake of Killarney, which repeats the sound forty times, he very promptly observed,"Faith that's nothing at all to the echo in my father's garden, in the county o Galway; if you say to it- How do you

do, Paddy Blake?' it will answer,' Pretty well I thank you, sir."

Now this echo of Paddy Blake's, which has long been the admiration of the world, is not a prodigy unique in it's kind; it can be matched by one recorded in the immortal works of the great lord Verulam.*

"I remember well," says this father of philosophy, "that when I went to the echo at port Charenton, there was an old parisian that took it to be the work of spirits, and of good spirits; for,' said he, • call Satan, and the echo will not deliver back the devil's name, but will say' Va t'en.

The parisian echo is surely superiour to the hibernian! Paddy Blake's simply understood and practised the common rules of good breeding; but the Port

* Natural History, century 111, p. 191.-Bacon produces it to show, that echoes will not readily return the letter S.

Charenton echo is instinct with spirit," and endowed with a nice moral sense. Amongst the famous bulls recorded by the illustrious Joe Miller, there is one which has been continually quoted as an example of original irish genius.—An english gentleman was writing a letter in a coffee house, and perceiving that an irishman stationed behind him was taking that liberty which Parmenio used with his friend Alexander, instead of putting his seal upon the lips of the curious impertinent, the english gentleman thought proper to reprove the hibernian, if not with delicacy, at least with poetical justice; he concluded writing his letter in these words: "I would say more, but a damned tall irishman is reading over my shoulder every word I write."

"You lie, you scoundrel," said the self-convicted hibernian.

This blunder is unquestionably excellent; but it is not originally irish: it comes with other riches from the east, as the