Exasperated at this instance of the pedant's audacity, he had
well nigh, in his first transports, taken corporal satisfaction on
the spot; but, foreseeing the troublesome consequences that would
attend such a flagrant outrage against the laws of the university,
he checked his indignation, and resolved to revenge the injury in a
more cool and contemptuous manner. Thus determined, he set on foot
an inquiry into the particulars of Jumble's parentage and education.
He learnt that the father of this insolent tutor was a brick-layer,
that his mother sold pies, and that the son, in different periods
of his youth, had amused himself in both occupations, before he
converted his views to the study of learning. Fraught with this
intelligence, he composed the following ballad in doggerel rhymes;
and next day, presented it as a gloss upon the text which the tutor
had chosen:--
Come, listen, ye students of every degree;
I sing of a wit and a tutor perdie,
A statesman profound, a critic immense,
In short a mere jumble of learning and sense;
And yet of his talents though laudably vain,
His own family arts he could never attain.
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