97 66

AUTHOR OF SHORT STUDIES IN LITERATURE,” QUIZZISM AND ITS KEY,"

66 DIME SERIES OF QUESTION BOOKS," ETC.

NEW YORK:

E. L. KELLOGG & CO.

1886.

Copyright, 1886, by ALBERT P. SOUTHWICK, A.M.

mich, St. Lit. gt.

9-19-19213

INTRODUCTORY.

"Think on these things."-Phillippians iv., 8.

"When found make a note of."-Dickens.
"I pause for a reply."-Shakespeare.

"Truth is always strange, stranger than fiction."

-Byron.

CURIOSITY.

66 'How swells the theme! how vain my power I find,
To track the windings of the curious mind;
Let aught be hid, though useless, nothing boots,
Straightway it must be plucked up by the roots.
How oft we lay the volume down to ask

Of him, the victim in the Iron Mask;
The crusted medal rub with painful care,
To spell the legend out-that is not there;

With dubious gaze o'er mossgrown tombstones bend,
To find a name- the herald never penned;
Dig through the lava-deluged city's breast;
Learn all we can, and wisely guess the rest:
Ancient or modern, sacred or profane,
All must be known, and all obsure made plain;
If 't was a pippin tempted Eve to sin,

If glorious Byron drugged his muse with gin;
If Troy e'er stood, if Shakespeare stole a deer,
If Israel's missing tribes found refuge here;
If like a villain Captain Henry lied,

If like a martyr Captain Morgan died."

Charles Sprague.