Tom Coryat, I have seen thy Crudities, And, methinks, very strangely brewed--it is With piece and patch together glued--it is And how, like thee, ill-favoured hued--it is In many lines I see that lewd--it is And therefore fit to be subdued--it is Within thy broiling brain-pan stewed--it is And 'twixt thy grinding jaws well chewed--it is Within thy stomach closely mewed--it is And last, in Court and Country spewed--it is But now by wisdom's eye that viewed--it is They all agree that very rude--it is With foolery so full endued--it is That wondrously by fools pursued--it is As sweet as gall's amaritude--it is And seeming full of pulchritude--it is But more to write, but to intrude--it is And therefore wisdom to conclude--it is. J. TAYLOR. _The World's Eighth Wonder._ LITERATURE FOR DESOLATE ISLANDS I've thought very often 'twould be a good thing In all public collections of books, if a wing Were set off by itself, like the seas from the dry lands, Marked _Literature suited to desolate islands_, And filled with such books as could never be read Save by readers of proofs, forced to do it for bread,-- Such books as one's wrecked on in small country taverns, Such as hermits might mortify over in caverns, Such as Satan, if printing had then been invented, As a climax of woe, would to Job have presented, Such as Crusoe might dip in, although there are few so Outrageously cornered by fate as poor Crusoe; * * * * * I propose to shut up every doer of wrong With these desperate books, for such term, short or long, As by statute in such cases made and provided, Shall be by you wise legislators decided. J. R. LOWELL. _A Fable for Critics._ I have sometimes heard of an Iliad in a nutshell; but it has been my fortune to have much oftener seen a nutshell in an Iliad.--J. SWIFT. _A Tale of a Tub._ BOOKS FOR THE SALON