THE SHOTOVER PAPERS, Or, Echoes from Oxford. "Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod."-SHAKESPEARE, Richard II., A. 5, Sc. 1. "As good to chide the waves as speak them fair.”—HENRY VI. Pt. III. E draw our bow at a venture: from the clear air which breathes round the hill of the Château Vert we look down upon the city below us, the sacred city of the Isis, sacred to the memory of the good and learned of England's noblest days; and we see Oxford following after other Gods, Gods that our fathers knew not of: the great God Snob is not yet— may he never be-worshipped as ruler of the new Pantheon, but the little Gods Sham and Spite have no small knot of devotee apostles; aye, and perchance, too, some frail Goddesses have set up their mystic rites in secluded groves. We draw our bow at a venture, so look to it, Dons and Undergraduates, boating men and reading men, look to it, O Union orators, statesmen of the future, look to it, ye patrons of S. Philip's or St. Aldate's, look to it, ye loungers in the Parks, look to it, ye Proctors, and thou, O Vice Chancellor, see that your harness be well fitted, that between its joints no arrow shall pierce. Our aim is careless, but perhaps it may strike deep : we care not whom we wound; if we cannot smite a king we shall contentedly wing a Freshman. Our bow is sturdy and our arrows are many and well-tipped, but we wage no war in vain: so long as folly, or stupidity, or malice cry out upon us as disturbers of the peace, their peace, so long shall we gladly send another dart, but when we shall see our shaft in its flight blazing, as did the arrow of Acestes, and vanishing into the clouds of the sky, then shall we know that our work is done, and we shall unstring our bow and recline at peace in our little villa on the hill. reader, take care. Till then, kind LITTLE JOHN. B Books are of two classes, as likewise are the authors thereof, for as the former may be divided into such as are designed for men to understand and such as are designed not to be understanded of men, so are the writers of books to be divided into such as write what they do understand and such as do write things whereof they have no understanding. But as our object is to consider books and not their makers it behoveth us to dismiss from our consideration all contemplation of the makers as distinguished from the books themselves, otherwise would we fall into the grievous and deadly error of visiting the sins of the guilty on the innocent, although in our present mode of procedure we do run the risk of distinguishing things and men whom the world doth not count as distinguished. Now whereas we have divided books into such as be intended for men to understand and such as be intended for men not to understand, and whereas to this exception will be taken by the captious and carping critics who go to make up the great republic of letters (so called, as it hath been wisely observed, because they have not a sovereign among them), and whereas our object is to instruct the many by homely definition, description and example, and not to amuse and tickle the logical acumen of the few, know all men that under the first of these divisions, to wit books to be understanded of the people, historics be the most important; and under the second division books not to be so understanded are to be ranged all works of poets and philosophers. But before we proceed to determine the characteristics of each of these classes it behoveth us to make observation that there be a third or middle class which be written with no intent or purpose as to there being understanded or not being understanded, but simply, entirely and unreservedly without any reason, cause, or object conceivable by the human perception. First then we will consider such books as are written to the intent that they be understanded of the reader, they be either (a) Instructive and not amusing, or (B) Amusing and not instructive. Of the former sub-division it only appertaineth to the present purpose to notice the fact that such works-to wit works that are instructive and not amusing-are mostly the creations of men learned in all ways of making books, who having as it were attained unto a height far above the level of the vulgar herd do take courage from their position, and, having made books, throw them, to use language metaphorical rather than exact, at the crowd beneath, and as we do know that a little matter falling from a great height acquireth a mighty momentum, so it is with books written of the great and learned, which worthless, light and frivolous though they be, yet do smite terribly the minds of the unthinking public. And many, so to speak, are the pillars that are clomb by these great ones that from such pillars |