These simple romancers in nowise resemble the vitriolic melo-dramatists-scarcely caricatured by Punch in "Mokeanna,"-who try to drug, in default of intoxicating their audience; the liquor they proffer in their pretty flimsy cups, if not exciting, is far from deleterious; not unfrequently you catch glimpses of an under-current of honest pathos, soon smothered by garish flowers of language; and sometimes the style sparkles into mild effervescence, redeeming itself from utter vapidity; these ephemerals, indeed, belong rather to the lemonade than the milk-and-water class; but, throughout, there is a woeful want of verve and virility.
"Border and Bastille"
George A. Lawrence
The violent ferment which had been stirred in the nation by the affairs of Wilkes and the Middlesex election, was followed, as Burke said, by as remarkable a deadness and vapidity.
"Burke"
John Morley
At last: "It's a beautiful morning," he ventured, and cursed his vapidity.
"Chippinge Borough"
Stanley J. Weyman