THE POTIPHAR PAPERS.
(REPRINTED FROM "PUTNAM'S MONTHLY.") ILLUSTRATED BY A. HOPPIN.New York: G. P. PUTNAM AND COMPANY, 10 PARK PLACE.
M. DCCC. LIII.Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by G. P. PUTNAM AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. Printed and Stereotyped by Billin and Brothers, 20 North William St., N. Y.
- "Imagination fondly stoops to trace
- The parlor splendors of that festive place."
Goldsmith's Deserted Village.
"Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in."
Burke's First Letter on a Regicide Peace.
"And I do seriously approve of that saying of yours, 'that you would rather be a civil, well-governed, well-grounded, temperate, poor angler, than a drunken lord.' But I hope there is none such."
Walton's Angler.
"'Mon petit faquin de philosophé,' dit le Chevalier de Grammont, 'tu fais ici le Caton de Normandie.'"
"'Est-ce que je mens?' poursuivit Saint-Evremond."
Memoires de Grammont.
page: iv-v[View Page iv-v]Prefatory Letter
TO REV. CREAM CHEESE.
REV. AND DEAR SIR:It is surely unnecessary to call the attention of so astute an observer, and so austere a critic, as yourself, to the fact that the title of the leading essay in this little volume (of which, permit me to say, you are so essential an ornament) is marked as a quotation; and a quotation, as you will very well remember, from the lips of our friend, Mrs. Potiphar, herself.
Therefore, Rev. Sir, your judgment, which, you must allow me to say, is no less impartial than your experience is profound, will suggest to you that the subject of that essay (of the points of which the succeeding sketches are but page: vi-vii[View Page vi-vii] elaborations) is the aspect of what is currently termed "our best society"—whether with reason or not, is beside the purpose.
Your pastoral charity, I am convinced, will persuade you to direct the attention of your parishioners to this fact, and to assure them, that, when you prepared your timely treatise upon the progress of purple chasubles among the Feejee islanders, you were not justly amenable to the charge of omitting all notice of the cultivation of artificial flowers by the Crim Tartars. The latter are, I believe, a very estimable people, but they were not the subjects of your consideration.
To those in your parish, and elsewhere, who have thought fit to suppose that Mrs. Potiphar is Mrs. Somebody-else,—what can we say? conscious as we are, that they who have once known that lady could never confound her with another.
But for those who have actually supposed you, yourself, Reverend Sir, to be, not somebody else, but nobody, (!) we can only smile compassionately, and express the hope that a broader experience may give them greater wisdom.
In taking leave of you, Sir, I know that I express the warmest wish of a large, a very large parish, (I might almost say, diocese,) that you may long survive. For your parish is fully, and, as I think, most correctly persuaded, that while there is a Cream Cheese, there will always be a Mrs. Potiphar.
THE EDITOR.
NEW YORK, December, 1853.CONTENTS.
- I. "OUR BEST SOCIETY," 1
- II. OUR NEW LIVERY, AND OTHER THINGS; A LETTER FROM MRS. POTIPHAR TO MISS CAROLINE PETTITOES, 47
- III. A MEDITATION BY PAUL POTIPHAR, ESQ., 97
- IV. FROM THE SUMMER DIARY OF MINERVA TATTLE, 135
- V. THE POTIPHARS IN PARIS, 183
- VI. KURZ PACHA TO THE KING OF SENNAAR, UPON RECEIVING HIS LETTERS OF RECALL, (now first translated.) 237
- VII. THE REV. HENRY DOVE TO MRS. POTIPHAR, (private.) 247
