To go, or not to go, that is the question Whether ’tis nobler in the maid, to share The slights and sorrows of a faded train, Or to take steps unto the “Tempus Sale,” And, by a purchase, end them? To go,――to buy, No more; and at a glance to find I end The heartache, and the thousand horrid rents My dress is heir to――’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To go――to buy, To buy! perchance too much; aye, there’s the rub; For in that Sale of Sales, what dreams may come, When I have shuffled off this wretched robe Must give me pause: Still there’s the ancient dress That marks gentility in well-worn silk,―― Yet who would bear the flaunts and scorns of Kate, The Mantua Maker’s grief, Pall Mall’s contumely, The pangs of last year’s shade, the Christmas bills. The insolence of duns, and the spurns That Modistes give to the impecunious, If I myself might a sensation make With a _cash_ purchase? Who would old garments wear And weep and pine under a withered life, But that the dread of what Papa may say, The library’s scold, that always Leaves me sad, puzzles my will; And makes me rather wear the dress I have, Than try on others that I wot of? Thus _credit_ does make cowards of us all; And thus the natural cash transaction Is sicklied o’er by the pale cast of thought; And purchases of great value and amount With this regard are nearly turned awry. Yet this once I must――Parker, now! A cab! An Advertisement in _The Daily News_, February 1, 1878 ――――:o:―――― A DENTAL SOLILOQUY.