The party having reached Osterley Park, we were proceeding to describe the banquet which had been prepared, and the various devices and emblems with which it had been decorated, under the classical direction of the vicar, when alas! our publishers, like the harpies of old, unexpectedly pounced upon us, and warned us from the feast--“_diripiuntque dapes_,” as Virgil has it. “You have already exceeded the prescribed limits--you must close the scene--remember that you have engaged to condense the work into one volume,” said they. We remonstrate, but in vain. We request but a few pages, in order that we may give our characters a dramatic exit; but they reply to us in the words of Sneer, in the Critic, “O never mind! so as you get them off the stage, I’ll answer for it the _reader_ won’t care how.” You see then, gentle reader, how vain it would be to struggle against such arbitrary and tasteless masters; we shall, therefore, without any farther apology, ring the manager’s bell, and drop the curtain. ----- Footnote 63: The Cartesians maintained that the senses were the great sources of deception; that everything with which they present us ought to be suspected as false, or at least dubious, until our reason has confirmed the report. Footnote 64: Ferdinand, Duke of Tuscany, was once struck with the picture of a child crying; the artist (Peter of Cortona), who was at work upon the head, wishing to give a proof of his skill, by a few judicious touches converted the crying into a laughing face. The Duke was in astonishment; the painter, to show himself master of the human countenance, restored his first touches, and the Duke again saw the child weeping. Footnote 65: Page 161. Footnote 66: Page 49. Footnote 67: Those who are desirous of gaining farther information upon this subject may consult the chapter on “Ocular Spectra, or Accidental colours,” in Brewster’s Natural Magic, p. 21; and Edinburgh Encyclopædia, Art. Accidental Colours. Footnote 68: “Our knowledge of motion is a deduction of reasoning, not a perception of sense; it is derived from the comparison of two positions; the idea of a change of place is the result of that comparison attained by a short process of reasoning.”--_Lord Brougham._ Footnote 69: See Journal of the Royal Institution, No. 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XIX. _Preparations for the approaching fête.--The procession of the bridal party to Osterley Park.--The Major and his visitors superintend the arrangements in the meadow.--The curious discussions which took place on that occasion.--The origin of the Swing.--Merry Andrews.--Trajetours, &c.--The dinner at the Hall.--The learned controversy which was maintained with respect to the game of Chess._