Yet  nine  out  of  ten  critics  will  pronounce  this  a  very
bad  pun,  because  of  the  defectiveness  in  the  concluding


436  POPULAR   FALLACIES

member,  which  is  its  very  beauty,  and  constitutes  the
surprise.  The  same  person  shall  cry  up  for  admirable
the  cold  quibble  from  Virgil  about  the  broken  Cre-
mona ;  *  because  it  is  made  out  in  all  its  parts,  and
leaves  nothino-  to  the  imagination.  We  venture  to  call
it  cold ;  because,  of  thousands  who  have  admired  it,  it
would  be  difficult  to  find  one  who  has  heartily  chuckled
at  it.  As  appealing  to  the  judgment  merely,  (setting
the  risible  faculty  aside,)  we  must  pronounce  it  a  mon-
ument of  curious  felicity.  But  as  some  stories  are  said
to  be  too  good  to  be  true,  it  may  with  equal  tnith  be
asserted  of  this  biverbal  allusion,  that  it  is  too  good  to
be  natural.  One  cannot  help  suspecting  that  the  inci-
dent was  invented  to  fit  the  line.  It  would  have  been
better  had  it  been  less  perfect.  Like  some  Virgilian
hemistichs,  it  has  suffered  by  filling  up.  The  nimium
Vicina  was  enough  in  conscience ;  the  Cremonce  after-
wards loads  it.  It  is  in  fact  a  double  pun  ;  and  we
have  always  observed  that  a  superfoetation  in  this  sort
of  wit  is  dangerous.  When  a  man  has  said  a  good
thing,  it  is  seldom  politic  to  follow  it  up.  We  do  not
care  to  be  cheated  a  second  time  ;  or,  perhaps,  the
mind  of  man  (with  reverence  be  it  spoken)  is  not  capa-
cious enough  to  lodge  two  puns  at  a  time.  The  im-
pression, to  be  forcible,  must  be  simultaneous  and  un-
divided.
X.
THAT   HANDSOME   IS    THAT   HANDSOME    DOES.
Those  who  use  this  proverb  can  never  have  seen
Mrs.  Conrady.
