National Gazette

Receipt to make an ECHO Writer.

Two bushels of meal * and three gallons of
water,
(Rain-water or river is held to be best)
The guts of a swine just warm from the slaughter,
And a pumpkin boil'd up with a gallon of rye.
Six quarts of strong grog, that stinks from the still,
A jill of molasses, and switchel three pints,
With malice and scandal—as much as you will—
And a quantum of bear's-grease, to supple the
joints :
Old Midas's ears, and the sweatings of brass,
The tongue of a goose, and the husk of an onion,
The liquor that chills in the hoof of an ass,
Some verses, light-handed from Pope or from
Bunyan :—
Work these up together, and let them ferment,
In the space of a day the farrago will rise ;
Eight more must elapse, and the eighth being
spent,
On the ninth the young puppy will open his
eyes.
He'll then be completed for epic or lyric,
To plunder from Butler, and call it his own,
To scribble on dunces some dull panegyric,
Or whine out his poems in sorrowful tone:
He'll then be completed, to publish his jokings,
To furbish up psalms, or to cobble damn'd stuff.
In poems call'd echoes, with pitiful croakings,
To muffle out lies, and expire in a puff.

March 27.
Probatum est.

2

* Indian-corn-meal is here meant.