"Poor fellow, I pity him," said _Mr. Punch_ to Father TIME, as the pair passed away from the Lunar precincts together, bowing courteously, and a little apologetically, to 'ARRY's late hostess, who called off her dogs, and affably responded to their parting salutation. "Fact is," pursued the Sage, "my young friend 'ARRY, though smart and _fin de siècle_, in his way, is a little of 'the earth, earthy,' and lacks both the adventurousness and the tact of an Ixion." "I presume," said the Scythe-bearer, "our inter-planetary peregrinations are now pretty nearly at an end--for this time?" "We have yet one more visit to pay," said _Mr. Punch_. At this moment, as the space-pervading trio fleeted forward, a strange unusual effulgence grew to the eastward, and began to bathe them in golden light. Miraculously metamorphic was its action upon the aërial travellers. _Mr. Punch_ flung aside his hat and his "Immensikoff," and appeared as the Apollo-like personage he really is. TOBY's wings expanded, and his pace mended. As for "Old Father TIME" himself, the combined influence of the regenerating philtre in _Faust_, and the fire-bath in _She_, could not more completely have transmogrified him. His face brightened with youthfulness, his solitary forelock bushed out into a wavy and hyacinthine hirsute crop, his ancient and magician-like garments fell from him, his plumes expanded, until he looked more like "the herald Mercury" than old Edax Rerum. Then they swung, as on airy _trapèze_, or on wings of the thunder-bird strong, With the sound in their ears of the voice of the starry and sisterly throng. Did the orbs of splendiferous Sol give a wink as they ranged into reach? Was his genial mouth all alight with the flame of the friendliest speech? Hey, Presto! Great Scott! Transformation on DRURIOLANUS's stage Was never so sudden as this! Who rides there as the Sun-God? The Sage! The Great Hypnotiser! Utopia's lord! He Who Must Be Obeyed! He whose Magical Spell is on Princes and Peoples, on Art and on Trade. _Houp-là!_ Transformation tremendous! The round of the Planets we've travelled, Some curious secrets unveiled, and some mysteries mighty unravelled. _We manage things better on Earth!_ That's the formula! Sounds it sardonic? Was _Punch_ just a morsel sarcastic, his hosts just a trifle ironic? At any rate, _Punch_ here explains to the World how to manage things better, By purging Humanity's spirit, and snapping Hate's tyrannous fetter. He'd Hypnotise Man into health, both of body and spirit, and out of The follies, and vices, and greeds, and conceits. See the whole Comus-rout of Absurdities, Appetites, Antics, Antipathies, personal, national, Driven before his bright Sun-Car! The Rule of the Rosily Rational He would inaugurate, making Earth's atmosphere healthy as Thanet's, _That_ Father TIME, is his aim; _that's_ the Moral of _Punch_ and the Planets!