When they distributed tracts, dropping
them at night into good men's letter boxes while they were asleep,
their tracts got burnt, or met with even worse contumely." For
Ernest Pontifex "they had a repellent attraction; he disliked them,
but he could not bring himself to leave them alone. On one occasion
he had gone so far as to parody one of the tracts they had sent
round in the night, and to get a copy dropped into each of the
leading Simeonites' boxes. The subject he had taken was 'Personal
Cleanliness.'"
Some years ago I found among the Cambridge papers in the late Mr. J.
W. Clark's collection three printed pieces bearing on the subject.
The first is a genuine Simeonite tract; the other two are parodies.
All three are anonymous. At the top of the second parody is written
"By S. Butler. March 31." It will be necessary to give a few
quotations from the Simeonite utterance in order to bring out the
full flavour of Butler's parody, which is given entire. Butler went
up to St. John's in October, 1854; so at the time of writing this
squib he was in his second term, and 18 years of age.
A.T.B.
I.--Extracts from the sheet dated "St. John's College, March 13th,
1855." In a manuscript note this is stated to be by Ynyr Lamb, of
St. John's (B.A., 1862).
1. When a celebrated French king once showed the infidel
philosopher Hume into his carriage, the latter at once leaped in, on
which his majesty remarked: "That's the most accomplished man
living.
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