“We want to read Mr. Burnand's book when we are en rapport with
the author. If we are bothered in mind, or uncomfortable in feeling, we
can hardly appreciate justly the wit and humor of these happy thoughts;
but, if the mood is pleasant, we shall find them diverting and laugh-provoking
beyond measure. Their wit is a peculiar wit, breaking out here
and there in little jets, and manifesting itself in unexpected spasms; and
their humor is something suggested rather than expressed: yet we cannot
help sympathizing with the genial spirit of the volume. In every page to
which we open, we find some fancy or thought to entertain and delight us,
and something to touch our best nature; and we like the book, if it is not
as solid as a history or a treatise on science.”