I like an. idea. I say, when I get a new one,
"Snoady, book that!"

My idea, on the present occasion, was,—Mr.
Groggles! It was not a Turtle that I saw
but Mr. Groggles. It was the dead image of
Mr. Groggles. He was dragged up to
confront me, with his waistcoat—if I may be
allowed the expression—towards me; and it
was identically the waistcoat, of Mr. Groggles.
It was the same shape, very nearly the same
colour, only wanted a gold watch-chain, and
a bunch of seals, to BE the waistcoat of Mr.
Groggles. There was what I should call a
bursting expression about, him in general,
which was accurately the expression of Mr.
Groggles. I had never closely observed a
Turtle's throat before. The folds of his loose
cravat, I found to be precisely those of Mr.
Groggles's cravat. Even the intelligent eye
—I mean, to say, intelligent enough for a
person of correct principles, and. not
dangerously so—was the eye of Mr. Groggles.
When the athletic young man let him go, and,
with a roll of his head, he flopped heavily
down into the tank, it was exactly the manner
of Mr. Groggles as I have seen him ooze away
into his seat, after opposing a sanitary motion
in the Court of Common Council!

''Snoady," I couldn't help saying to myself,
"you have done it. You have got an idea,
Snoady, in which a great principle is involved.
I congratulate you!" I followed the young
man, who dragged up several Turtle to the
brinks of the various tanks. I found them
all the same—all varieties of Mr. Groggles—all
extraordinarily like the gentlemen who usually,
eat them. "Now, Snoady," was my next
remark, "what do you deduce from this?"

"Sir," said, I, "what I deduce from this, is,
confusion to those Radicals and other
Revolutionists who talk about improvement.
Sir," said I, " what I deduce from this, is,
that there isn't this resemblance between the
Turtles and the Groggleses for nothing. It's
meant to show mankind, that the proper
model for a Groggles, is a Turtle; and that
the liveliness we want in a Groggles, is the
liveliness of a Turtle, and no more." " Snoady,"
was my reply to this, "You have hit it. You
are right!"

I admired the idea very much, because, if I
hate anything in the world, it's change.
Change has evidently no business in the
world, has nothing to do with it, and isn't
intended. What we want is (as I think I have
mentioned) to be comfortable. I look at it
that way. Let us be comfortable, and leave
us alone. Now, when the young man dragged
a Groggles—mean a Turtle—out of his
tank, this was exactly what the noble animal
expressed as he floundered back again.

I have several friends besides Mr. Groggles
in the Common Council, and it might be a
week after this, when I said, " Snoady, if I
was you, I would go to that court, and hear
the debate to-day." I went. A good deal of
it was what I call a sound, old English
discussion. One eloquent speaker objected to the
French as wearing wooden shoes; and a friend
of his reminded him of another objection to
that foreign people, namely, that they eat
frogs. I had feared, for many years, I am
sorry, to say, that these wholesome principles
were gone out. How delightful to find them
still remaining among the great men of the
City of London, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and fifty! It made me think
of the Lively Turtle.

But, I soon thought more of the Lively
Turtle. Some Radicals and Revolutionists
have penetrated even to the Common Council
—which otherwise I regard as one of the last
strongholds of our afflicted constitution; and
speeches were made, about removing Smithfield
Market—which I consider to be a part
of that Constitution—and about appointing a
Medical Officer for the City, and about
preserving the public health;  and other
treasonable practices, opposed to Church and State.
These proposals Mr. Groggles, as might have
been expected of such a man, resisted; so
warmly, that, as I afterwards understood from
Mrs. Groggles, he had rather a sharp attack
of blood to the head that night. All the
Groggles party resisted them too, and it was
a fine constitutional sight to see waistcoat
after waistcoat rise up in resistance of them and
subside. But what struck me in the sight
was this, " Snoady," said I,"here is your idea
carried out, Sir!  These Radicals and
Revolutionists are the athletic young men in
shirt sleeves, dragging the Lively Turtle to
the edges of the tank. The Groggleses are
the Turtle, looking, out for a moment, and
flopping down again. Honour to the
Groggleses! Honour to the Court of Lively
Turtle! The wisdom of the Turtle is the
hope of England!"

There are three heads in the moral of what
I had to say. First, Turtle and Groggles are
identical; wonderfully alike externally,
wonderfully alike mentally. Secondly, Turtle is
a good thing every way, and the liveliness of
the Turtle is intended as an example for the
liveliness of man; you are not to go beyond
that. Thirdly, we are all quite comfortable.
Leave us alone!

HIRAM POWER'S GREEK SLAVE.

THEY say Ideal Beauty cannot enter
The house of anguish. On the threshold stands
This alien Image with the shackled hands,
Called the Greek Slave: as if the artist meant her
(The passionless perfection which he lent her,
Shadowed, not darkened, where the sill expands)
To, so, confront man's crimes in different lands,
With man's ideal sense. Pierce to the centre,
Art's fiery finger! and break up erelong
The serfdom of this world. Appeal, fair stone,
From God's pure heights of beauty, against man's wrong!
Catch up, in thy divine face, not alone
East griefs, but west, and strike and shame the strong,
By thunders of white silence, overthrown.