Volume 99 — THE RAVENSTEIN.
Reading edition
[Mr. RAVENSTEIN, at the British Association, considered the question, how long it will be before the world becomes over-populated.]
Punch to the Prophet.
Prophet of o'er-population, your ingenious calculation, Causeth discombobulation only in the anxious mind That forecasts exhausted fuel, or the period when the duel Will have given their final gruel to French journalists; a kind Of cantankerous, rancorous spitfires, blusterous, braggart, boyish, blind, Who much mourning scarce would find. Prophet of o'er-population, when the centuries in rotation Shall have filled our little planet till it tends to running o'er, Will this world, with souls o'erladen, be a Hades or an Aidenn? Will man, woman, boy and maiden, be less civilised, or more? That's the question, RAVENSTEIN! What boots a billion, less or more, If Man still is fool or boor? "Seek not to proticipate" is Mrs. Gamp's wise maxim. Great is Mankind's number now, but "take 'em as they come, and as they go," Like the philosophic Sairey; and though the sum total vary, Other things may vary likewise, things we dream not, much less know, Don't you think, my RAVENSTEIN, our state ten centuries hence or so We may prudently—let go?
THE QUICKSAND!
PREPARING FOR BLACK MONDAY.
Paterfamilias (reading School Report). "AH, MY BOY, THIS ISN'T SO GOOD AS IT MIGHT BE. 'LATIN INDIFFERENT,' 'FRENCH POOR,' 'ARITHMETIC NOTHING'?"
Tommy. "AH, BUT LOOK DOWN THERE, PAPA. 'HEALTH EXCELLENT'!"