F T lN [JANuAYr 18, 1862.


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 Edwin (aside):-" SIIE WEEPS! YES, WEEPS! AND, OH! IT IS-IT MUST BE-FOR ME. OH! ANGELINA! THOU KNOWEST NOT THY
EDWIN IS AT THY SIDE. (Aloud.) ANGELINA, WEEP NOT! I--EEN THY-
 Angelina:-" SIR!!!!!"


 OUR PRIZE ESSAYS.
 THE publication of two characteristic effusions in a recent number
has created an immense sensation in literary circles and fashionable
squares. Our readers are, doubtless, looking forward with feverish
excitement to the promised series, of which two such admirable
specimens have already appeared. We hasten to relieve their sus-
pense, by printing two more of our Prize Essays; and we beg to say
that a peculiar and exclusive value will attach to these remarkable
productions, inasmuch as they will each and all be written only for FUN.
 No. 3.-BY MR. TI--M--s C-6L-E.
 A fact, I say, this FUN :-No artful simulacrum, or gibbering phan-
tasm, cloudy and amorphous, but a real living nineteenth century
Thing, prophesied from of old, and having a certain use and meaning.
Not to be neglected at our peril! From the beginning of the World, I
tell thee that Laughter has been in the heart of Man, and is of quite
endless significance and import. Great is Rage :-volcanic-fuliginous
Wrath against Evil Doers, Gig-Respectabilities, Cheap Tailoring,
Human Ineptitude, and the vast howling Wilderness of solemnly con-
stituted Impostures. But great also is Laughter; genial as summer
showers, fertile as Mother Earth. Great, I say; of unknown great-
ness! If thou wilt consider this FUN of theirs-and art not thyself
(as most men in these latter days) a mere banking Gorilla of the Per-
sian Gulf-consider it, I say, and thou shalt see the Marvellousness of
it. How Craftsman, Artist, Literary Gentleman (class by me not
much admired)-all have done something each for his wage: how
wheels, presses, cylinders, pulleys, and infinite multifarious cranks,
rollers, and cogs, have done their offices, and also how the Intellect of
Man, being hired for this set purpose, has done its office too. And
the whole net result, the Accumulated Total of all this mechanical
Power and human Faculty, lies now before thee, purchaseable for One
Penny! Is not all this worth thy pondering? But I do per-
ceive that I bore thee. Thou must have thy dinner, thy BLONDIN-
sensation-trick, thy Octoroon-slave-girl-female Quashee some few


steps removed-saved by special desire of a Public, mainly Vapid
Fools. Go thy ways: they will lead thee I will not say precisely
whither. Ach Himmel! I will depart and smoke tobacco under the
stars,-Sirius, Orion, and the Pleiades,-stars which are themselves
but as Gig Lamps to the rolling Chariot of the Universe!
 No. 4.-BY Mh. M. F. T-PP-.-
FUN is a comic publication; its price is only a penny;
So that he who is lord of a shilling might purchase a dozen copies.
Yet I would not advise him to do so, for Superfluity bringeth Repletion,
Whilst Variety is ever charming, and picks up the earliest worm.
Lo, there are the Illustrations: they are cut upon wood by the Graver ;
Cunning of hand is he, reproducing the thought of the Artist.
The writers in FUN are many; with avidity mingled with joy
(Like the leap of the playful goat, as it champs the grass of Arabia),
They pocket the noble cheques the Proprietor willingly pays them.
I have myself been invited, but deemed it a labour beneath me
To hurl the glittering jest, and let loose the insidious conundrum.
For the fame of my wonderful works appertains to the whole British
 Public ;
But the profits of many editions belong to myself and no other.
Go to, thou loud-sniffing person, that mockest the words I have spoken ;
Apes have prehensile tails, to help them along through the forest.
Thus each event vindicates itself, and the crucible touchstone of Reason
Writes upon porphyry tablets that wisdom endureth for ever.


 TROVATO SOTTO LA STATUA DI PASQUINO.
 SANDO PADRE benedetto,
 Non avendo io poveretto,
 Un quattrino nel borsello,
 Mando a offrirvi un vecchio ombrello;
 Mi direte : a cosa vale ?
 Al cader, del Temporaee.


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