Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, CompleteVarious
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
The most magnificent of the starry phenomena, is the Milky Way or Whey;
and, indeed, the epithet seems superfluous, for all whey is to a certain
extent milky. The Band of Orion is familiar to all of us by name; but it
is not a musical band, as most people are inclined to think it is.
Perhaps the allusion to the music of the spheres may have led to this
popular error, as well as to that which regards Orions band as one of
wind instruments.
We shall not go into those ingenious calculations that some astronomers
have indulged in, as to the time it would take for a cannon-ball to come
from the sun to the earth, for we really hope the earth will never be
troubled by so unwelcome a visitor. Nor shall we throw out any
suggestions as to how long a bullet would be going from the globe to the
moon; for we do not think any one would be found goose enough to take up
his rifle with the intention of trying the experiment.
Comets are, at present, though very luminous bodies, involved in
considerable obscurity. Though there is plenty of light in comets, we
are almost entirely in the dark concerning them. All we know about them
is, that they are often coming, but never come, and that, after
frightening us every now and then, by threatening destruction to our
earth, they turn sharp off, all of a sudden, and we see no more of them.
Astronomers have spied at them, learned committees have sat upon them,
and old women have been frightened out of their wits by them; but,
notwithstanding all this, the comet is so utterly mysterious, that
thereby hangs a tail is all we are prepared to say respecting it.
We trust the above remarks will have thrown a light on the sun and moon,
illustrated the stars, and furnished a key to the skies in general; but
those who require further information are referred to Messrs. Adams and
Walker, whose plans of the universe, consisting of several yellow spots
on a few yards of black calico, are exactly the things to give the
students of astronomy a full development of those ideas which it has
been our aim to open out to him.
NEW STUFFING FOR THE SPEAKERS CHAIR. With too much blood and too
little brain, these two may run mad; but if with too much brain and too
little blood, they do, Ill be a curer of madmen.Troilus and Cressida.
MR. PETER BORTHWICK and Colonel Sibthorpe are both named as candidates
for the Speakers chair. Peter has a certificate of being a bould
speaker, from old Richardson, in whose company he was engaged as
parade-clown and check-taker. The gallant Colonel, however, is decidedly
the favourite, notwithstanding his very ungracious summary of the Whigs
some time ago. We would give one of the buttons off our hump to see
A seated bearded man wearing a wig and robes. SIBTHORPE IN THE CHAIR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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