I’ll make my verses rattle with the din of war and battle, For war doth increase sa-la-ry, ry, ry: And I’ll shake the public ears with the triumph of Algiers, And thus I’ll get a finger in the CHRISTMAS PIE. THE FIVE And we’ll all have a finger, a finger, a finger, We’ll all have a finger in the CHRISTMAS PIE. MR. PAPERSTAMP And while you thrive by ranting, I’ll try my luck at canting, And scribble verse and prose all so dry, dry, dry: And Mystic’s patent smoke public intellect shall choke, And we’ll all have a finger in the CHRISTMAS PIE. THE FIVE We’ll all have a finger, a finger, a finger, We’ll all have a finger in the CHRISTMAS PIE. MR. ANYSIDE ANTIJACK My tailor is so clever, that my coat will turn for ever And take any colour you can dye, dye, dye: For my earthly wishes are among the loaves and fishes, And to have my little finger in the CHRISTMAS PIE. THE FIVE And we’ll all have a finger, a finger, a finger, We’ll all have a finger in the CHRISTMAS PIE. CHAPTER XL THE HOPES OF THE WORLD The mountain-roads being now buried in snow, they were compelled, on leaving Mainchance Villa, to follow the most broad and beaten track, and they entered on a turnpike road which led in the direction of the sea. ‘I no longer wonder,’ said Mr. Fax, ‘that men in general are so much disposed as I have found them to look with supreme contempt on the literary character, seeing the abject servility and venality by which it is so commonly debased.’[123] _Mr. Forester._ What then becomes of the hopes of the world, which you have admitted to consist entirely in the progress of the mind, allowing, as you must allow, the incontrovertible fact of the physical deterioration of the human race? _Mr. Fax._ When I speak of the mind, I do not allude either to poetry or to periodical criticism, nor, in any great degree, to physical science; but I rest my hopes on the very same basis with Mr. Mystic’s fear—the general diffusion of moral and political truth. _Mr. Forester._ For poetry, its best days are gone. Homer, Shakspeare, and Milton will return no more. _Mr. Fax._ Lucretius we yet may hope for. _Mr. Forester._ Not till superstition and prejudice have been shorn of a much larger portion of their power. If Lucretius should arise among us in the present day, exile or imprisonment would be his infallible portion. We have yet many steps to make before we shall arrive at the liberality and toleration of Tiberius![124] And as to physical science, though it does in some measure weaken the dominion of mental error, yet I fear, where it proves itself in one instance the friend of human liberty, it will be found in ninety-nine the slave of corruption and luxury.