Here revolution of the starry heavens,' " &c. followed a couple of columns from the aforesaid disquisition in the Encyclopædia Britannica. "But," continued Hook, "you can doubtless put the thing in a much clearer light: I confess the 'Mutation of the axis, which changes also the longitudes and right ascension of the stars and planets, by changing the equinoctial points, and thus occasioning an equation in the precession of the equinoctial point,' is a little beyond me.' " For some time Mr R. parried the attack with considerable dexterity; but as the joke became obvious, others pursued it, and the victim was overwhelmed by inquiries relating to the 'parallax of the earth's orbit," "disturbing force and matter of the moon," &c., &c., till he was compelled at length to forego all claim to infallibility, and throw himself on the mercy of the foe. HOOK was spending an evening with old George Colman “ the younger.' Looking carefully at his youthful companion the old man said, mistaking him for the historian of Rome, "You must be a very extraordinary young man. Why, sir, you can hardly yet have reached your twenty-first birthday.” "I have just passed it," said Hook, adding readily "vingt-un-overdrawn." IN a number of amusing verses Theodore Hook, never a very studious student at Oxford, sketched a " Cockney University" of the future which should "set all the journeymen learning" until "Hackney-coachmen from Swift shall reply, if you feel Annoyed at being ruthlessly shaken; And butchers, of course, be flippant from Steele, ONE of the many pleasantries which Hook ascribed to Rogers is the following: "On Saturday se'en night," says an evening paper, "three of the king's pages, returning from Windsor with His Majesty's bag and letters in the dog-cart, just as the horse entered the outer gate of the lodge he was seized with the staggers, and falling, overturned the vehicle into a ditch; luckily the passengers escaped without any serious injury." It is curious to see how localities alter circumstances, even in the same county. In Windsor this accident is styled staggering; in Reading turning over three pages at once would have been called skipping. "ON the Departure of a certain Count for Italy; whence he has sent some Italian Music in Score for the Opera," Hook wrote this epigram and fathered it on Samuel Rogers "He has quitted the countess-what can she wish more? She loses one husband, and gets back a score." SEVERAL of the many "good stories" in Theodore Hook's volumes were actually true, the author himself having often been the hero, notably of this piece of fun up the river. It is here given as told by Hook himself of one of his own characters : "I say, you, sir," cried the undaunted joker to a very respectable round-bodied gentleman who was sitting squeezed into the stern-sheet of a skiff, floating most agreeably to himself adown the stream, "what are you doing there? You have no business in that boat, and you know it." A slight yaw of the skiff into the wind's eye was the only proof of the stout navigator's agitation. Still Daly was inexorable, and he again called to the unhappy mariner to get out of the boat. "I tell you, my fat friend," he cried, "you have no business in that boat!" Flesh and blood could not endure this re iterated declaration. was roused. The ire of the cockney "No business in this boat, sir? What d'ye mean?" "I mean what I say," said Daly, no business in it, and I'll prove it." You have "I think, sir, you will prove no such thing," said the navigator, whose progress through the water was none of the quickest; "perhaps you don't know, sir, that this is my own pleasure boat?" "That's it," said Daly, "now you have itno man can have any business in a pleasureboat. Good-day, sir. That's all." AT his club dinner on one occasion, owing to his late arrival, Hook was placed next an individual who availed himself of an opportunity of entering into direct communication with his eminent neighbour. The slightest symptoms of fun on the part of the latter were hailed with noisy approbation, and his puns were instantly repeated for the benefit of those at the upper end of the table, with highly flattering comments, such as Uncommonly good! capital! excellent, is it not?" 64 Not content with this, he endeavoured to monopolize Hook's conversation altogether, |