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42
PHANTASMAGORIA.
"'Twas a great liberty to take!"
(I fired up like a rocket.)
"He did it just for punning's sake—
'The man,' says Johnson, 'that would make
A pun, would pick a pocket!"'
"A man," said he, "is not a king."
I argued for a while,
And did my best to prove the thing—
The Phantom merely listening
With a contemptuous smile.
At last, when, breath and patience spent,
I had recourse to smoking—
"Your aim," he said, "is excellent:
But—when you call it argument—
Of course you're only joking?"
