The lines on George Eliot in 1881 are brief but laudatory. The phrase declining to rank her "among the tricksy mimes" is not happy; but she is spoken of as "this large-orbed glory of our times," and _Punch_ prophesies for her "unfading bays," a prophecy to which the present generation would seem inclined to demur. _Punch_ had little to add to his previous tributes to Carlyle when the Sage of Chelsea passed away in the same year, except to express the view that he was profoundly discontented with the England of to-day:-- He lived through England's triumph, but he heard With dying ears the shadow of decline. [Illustration: CULTURE--1881 MISTRESS: "As you've never been in Service, I'm afraid I can't engage you without a 'character.'" YOUNG PERSON: "I have three School Board certificates, Ma'am!" MISTRESS: "Oh, well--I suppose for honesty, cleanliness----" YOUNG PERSON: "No, Ma'am--for 'Literatoor,' Joggr'phy and Free'and Drawin'!"] [Sidenote: _Relations with American Authors_] The founding of the Browning Society in the same year met with no more encouragement from _Punch_ than Miss Braddon's boiled-down versions of Scott's novels. _Punch_ dimly recognized Browning's greatness while resenting his obscurities and eccentricities, and in a further skit on the Society carefully disclaims any disrespect for Browning himself. This mitigated appreciation is developed in the memorial verses in 1889 which hail him as a gallant and manly singer and apostle of healthy optimism, while denying his Muse the quality of elegance. _Punch_ was nearer the mark in his laconic reference to Tupper, who died in the same year:-- "HIS NAME HAS PASSED INTO A PROVERB." Martin F. Tupper, famed for his _Proverbial Philosophy_, has joined the majority. He was thoroughly in earnest, and said many a true thing in what popularly passed for poetry. He will be remembered as "The Great Maxim Gun" of the nineteenth century. The _Annual Register_ reminds us that in twenty-five years over 100,000 copies of _Proverbial Philosophy_ were sold in England and nearly half a million in America.