--but as I am at present preparing for the
press the First Volume of the "Transactions of the Pococurante Society," I
shall reserve for that occasion all further details upon the subject, and
content myself here with referring, for a general insight into our tenets,
to a Song which will be found at the end of this work and which is sung to
us on the first day of every month, by one of our oldest members, to the
tune of (as far as I can recollect, being no musician,) either "Nancy
Dawson" or "He stole away the Bacon."
It may be as well also to state for the information of those critics who
attack with the hope of being answered, and of being thereby brought into
notice, that it is the rule of this Society to return no other answer to
such assailants, than is contained in the three words "_non curat
Hippoclides_" (meaning, in English, "Hippoclides does not care a fig,")
which were spoken two thousand years ago by the first founder of Poco-
curantism, and have ever since been adopted as the leading _dictum_ of the
sect.
THOMAS BROWN.
FABLES FOR THE HOLY ALLIANCE.
FABLE I.
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE HOLY ALLIANCE.
A DREAM.
I've had a dream that bodes no good
Unto the Holy Brotherhood.
I may be wrong, but I confess--
As far as it is right or lawful
For one, no conjurer, to guess--
It seems to me extremely awful.
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