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INBOUND
MARKETING
AND SEO
INBOUND
MARKETING
AND SEO
INSIGHTS FROM
THE MOZ BLOG

Rand Fishkin and

Thomas Høgenhaven
This edition first published 2013
© 2013 SEOMoz

Registered office

John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ,
United Kingdom

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about
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 To the Moz community—You rock! Thank you for helping to build an
extraordinary organization.
To the remarkable writers and marketers who helped make this book possible—Thank
you for your generous contributions.
Special thanks to Ashley Tate and Christy Correll—You made this book possible.

—Rand and Thomas

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journey with you.
To Geraldine—I’m sorry for all the nights blogging and writing have kept me away
from you; your love and support means the world to me.

—Rand

To Marie—For making everything look brighter, day after day.

—Thomas
PUBLISHER’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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CONTENTS

Introduction 1
SEO Is Changing 2
From SEO to Inbound Marketing 2
Inbound Marketing 3
Investing in Inbound Marketing for the Long Term 4
Why Read This Book? 4

PART I: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 5

The Birth of SEO 5
Life After Google 6
Cracking Down 6
How Search Engines Make Money 7
Tactics That Never Stop Working 8
The Future of Search 8
Chapter 1: White Hat SEO: It F@$#ing Works 9
Some Points on Kris’ Post 11
Black Hat ≠ SEO 15
Why We Can’t Ignore Black Hat Entirely 17
Why White Hat Is Always Better 18
Chapter 2: Schema.org: Why You’re Behind If You’re Not Using It 23
Myth: Schema.org Markup Doesn’t Get Rich Snippets! 24
Schema.org Is Not a Language 25
Five Underused Schema.org Applications 26
#1 Events 26
#2 Jobs 27
#3 Reputation Management 28
#4 News Sites 29
#5 Ecommerce 29
Wrap-Up 29
Chapter 3: Perfecting Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization 31
Best Practices for Optimizing Pages 33
HTML Head Tags 33
URLs 34
Body Tags 35
Internal Links and Location in Site Architecture 36
Page Architecture 36
Why Don’t We Always Obey These Rules? 37
Best Practices for Ranking #1 37
x CONTENTS

Chapter 4: Duplicate Content in a Post-Panda World 39

What Is Duplicate Content? 40
Why Do Duplicates Matter? 40
The Supplemental Index 40
The Crawl Budget 41
The Indexation Cap 41
The Penalty Debate 41
The Panda Update 42
Three Kinds of Duplicates 42
True Duplicates 42
Near Duplicates 42
Cross-domain Duplicates 43
Tools for Fixing Duplicates 43
404 (Not Found) 43
301-Redirect 43
Robots.txt 44
Meta Robots 44
Rel=Canonical 45
Google URL Removal 46
Google Parameter Blocking 46
Bing URL Removal 47
Bing Parameter Blocking 47
Rel=Prev and Rel=Next 48
Internal Linking 49
Don’t Do Anything 49
Rel=“alternate” hreflang=“x” 49
Examples of Duplicate Content 49
www versus Non-www 50
Staging Servers 50
Trailing Slashes (“/”) 51
Secure (https) Pages 51
Home page Duplicates 51
Session IDs 52
Affiliate Tracking 52
Duplicate Paths 53
Functional Parameters 53
International Duplicates 54
Search Sorts 54
Search Filters 55
Search Pagination 55
Product Variations 56
Geo-keyword Variations 56
Other “Thin” Content 57
Syndicated Content 57
Scraped Content 57
Cross-ccTLD Duplicates 58
Which URL Is Canonical? 58
 CONTENTS xi

Tools for Diagnosing Duplicates 59

Google Webmaster Tools 59
Google’s Site: Command 60
Your Own Brain 61
I Hope That Covers It 61
Chapter 5: Freshness Factor: 10 Illustrations on How
Fresh Content Can Influence Rankings 63
How Google Scores Fresh Content 64
1. Freshness by Inception Date 65
2. How Much a Document Changes Influences Freshness 66
3. The Rate of Document Change (How Often) Impacts Freshness 66
4. Freshness Influenced by New Page Creation 67
5. Changes to Important Content Matter More 68
6. Rate of New Link Growth Signals Freshness 69
7. Links from Fresh Sites Pass Fresh Value 69
8. Changes in Anchor Text Signals May Devalue Links 70
9. User Behavior Indicates Freshness 71
10. Older Documents Still Win Certain Queries 72
Conclusion 73
Chapter 6: All Links Are Not Created Equal: 10 Illustrations
of Search Engines’ Valuation of Links 75
Principle #1: Links Higher Up in HTML Code
Cast More Powerful Votes 77
Principle #2: External Links Are More
Influential Than Internal Links 78
Principle #3: Links From Unique Domains Matter
More Than Links From Previously Linking Sites 79
Principle #4: Links From Sites Closer to a Trusted
Seed Set Pass More Value 80
Principle #5: Links From “Inside” Unique
Content Pass More Value Than Those From
Header/Footer/Sidebar Navigation Do 81
Principle #6: Keywords in HTML Text Pass More Value
Than Those in Alt Attributes of Linked Images 82
Principle #7: Links From More Important,
Popular, Trusted Sites Pass More Value 82
Principle #8: Links Contained Within
Noscript Tags Pass Low, If Any, Value 83
Principle #9: A Burst of New Links May Enable a Document
to Outrank “Stronger” Competition 83
Principle #10: Legitimate Links on Pages That Also Link
to Web Spam May Be Devalued 84
Conclusion 85
Chapter 7: The Responsibilities of SEO Have Been Upgraded 87
xii CONTENTS

PART II: CONTENT 91

History of Content within SEO 91
Types of Content 92
Turning Challenges into Opportunities 93
Video Content 93
High-Quality Content 93
Producing Content on Budget 94
Content at Scale 94
The Future of Content 95
Chapter 8: Beyond Blog Posts: A Guide to Innovative Content Types 97
Q&A Content 98
Presentations 99
Curated Content 100
Magazine and Long-Form Content 102
Imagery and Photojournalism 102
Video 103
Interactive Infographics 105
Product Marketplaces 105
Facebook Notes 106
Why Everyone Needs a Marketing Oracle for Their Content Platform 107
Chapter 9: Scaling White Hat Link Building—Scaling Content 109
Scalable Content 110
Cost 111
Scale 111
Quality 111
What’s This All Have to Do with Link Building? 112
Great Content? 112
Use Only Great Writers 113
Quality Control 113
Automation 113
Filling the Hopper with Good Content 114
Scaling 114
Do We Have All This Stuff? 115
Chapter 10: 10 Super Easy SEO Copywriting Tips for Improved Link Building 117
1. Write for Power Skimmers 118
2. Why Headline Formulas Work 119
3. Get 20% More with Numbers 119
4. Free and Easy Power Words 120
5. A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Clicks 120
6. Use Sub-Headlines or Die Trying 121
7. When in Doubt, List It Out 121
8. Quotes 122
9. The Bold and the Italic 122
10. Be Honest 122
 CONTENTS xiii

PART III: SOCIAL MEDIA 123

Social Media Marketing: The Early Years 123
Social Media Awakening: It’s Not Just About Me, It’s About You 124
Example 1 124
Example 2 125
Social Media Management: The Online Community Manager Is Born 125
Social Media Strategy: A Part of the Team 125
Social Media: What Does the Future Hold? 126
Chapter 11: The Rich Get Richer: True in SEO,
Social, and All Organic Marketing 127
Chapter 12: Life After Google Is Now: 9 Pieces of Advice
on How a New Site Can Succeed Without Search 131
What Does Designing For Social Mean? 132
1. Only the Best Goes Online 132
2. Twitter Is for the Insider’s View 132
3. Facebook Is for Debate 132
4. It’s All One Product Concept = Better Use of Time and Energy 133
What We Learned 133
5. Do More of What Is Successful 133
6. Not Everything Succeeds 133
7. Jump on Every Opportunity 133
8. Partnerships = Win-Win 134
9. Tools Help 134
In Conclusion 135
Chapter 13: Tracking the KPIs of Social Media 137
Why and Where Social Matters 138
Which Social Metrics to Track 140
Facebook 141
Twitter 142
LinkedIn 146
Google+ 149
Reddit, StumbleUpon, Quora, Yelp, Flickr, and YouTube 152
Blogs and Forums 152
Tools for Measuring Social Media Metrics 153
Chapter 14: Everyone Should Hire “Social Media Experts” 157
Chapter 15: A Peek Under the Hood: How We Manage
the Moz Community 163
Who Are We? 164
Keri Morgret 164
Erica McGillivray 165
Megan Singley 165
Lindsay Wassell 166
Christy Correll 166
Melissa Fach 167
xiv CONTENTS

Miriam Ellis 167

Jen Lopez 168
Community Doesn’t Stop There 168
Ashley Tate 169
Peter Meyers (aka Dr. Pete) 169
Mozzers 169
What Do We Do? 170
Blog 170
YouMoz 172
Q&A 173
Social Community 175
Twitter 175
Facebook 177
Google+ 180
LinkedIn 181
Whew. 183

PART IV: OUTREACH 185

Why Outreach Is Important 185
Good Outreach versus Bad Outreach 186
How Outreach Has Changed 186
The Dangers of Buying Links 187
The Challenges of Outreach 188
The Importance of Exceptional Content 188
Chapter 16: Throw Away Your Form Letters (or 5 Principles
to Better Outreach Link Building) 189
1. Talk to People Like People (Throw Out Your Form Letters) 190
Opening 191
Sustaining 193
Closing 195
2. Stand out in the Inbox 197
3. Do Your Research 198
4. Offer Value 199
5. Maintain the Rapport 199
Conclusion 200
Chapter 17: A Link Builder’s Gmail Productivity Setup
(with Outreach Emails from 4 Industry Link Builders) 203
Gmail Tools and Tips 204
Gmail Shortcuts 204
Canned Responses 205
Rapportive 206
Boomerang 207
Undo Send 208
Send and Archive 208
 CONTENTS xv

Link Building Email Templates from Industry Link Builders 209

Broken Link Building 209
Guest Posting 210
PR 210
Push Content 211
Exchange for a Link (But Not a Link Exchange) 212
Incentivized Reviews for Ecommerce 213
Chapter 18: Putting Guest Post Outreach Theories
to the Test [With Some Real-World Data] 215
Theory #1: Being a Woman Will Get You More Links 216
Battle of the Sexes: Who Performed Better? 216
Theory #2: Job Title Matters 217
Theory #3: Timing Is Important 218
Theory #4: Personalisation Is Worth It (or Is It?) 219
The Results 219
What Did We Learn? 220
Theory #5: The Style of Outreach Email Has an Impact 221
Theory #6: Persistence Pays Off 221
What’s the Perfect Combination? 222

PART V: CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION 223

The Evolution of CRO 224
Testing and CRO 225
The Future of CRO 226
Chapter 19: An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Influence and Persuasion 227
#1 Reciprocation 228
#2 Commitment and Consistency 229
#3 Social Proof 231
#4 Liking 232
#5 Authority 233
#6 Scarcity 234
Chapter 20: The 12-Step Landing Page Rehab Program 237
Establishing a Conversion Baseline—The Conversion Scorecard 239
Scoring Your Page 239
Step 1: Use a Separate Landing Page for Each Inbound Traffic Source 239
Sponsor’s Advice 240
Step 2: A/B Test Your Landing Pages 240
Sponsor’s Advice 241
Step 3: Match Your Landing Page Message to the Upstream Ad 241
Sponsor’s Advice 241
Step 4: Context of Use 242
Sponsor’s Advice 242
Step 5: Use Videos to Increase Engagement and Conversions 242
Sponsor’s Advice 243
 1
CHAPTER

WHITE HAT SEO: IT

F@$#ING WORKS
By Rand Fishkin

Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted on The Moz Blog in April 2011 in response to an off-
site post that dismissed the value of white hat SEO. Since then, Google has released many updates to
its search algorithm. Most prominent among the updates are Penguin, which devalues spammy back-
links and over-optimized sites, and Panda (originally launched February 2011 as Panda/Farmer),
which hits sites with thin content and link farms hard.

I HATE WEB SPAM. I hate what it’s done to the reputation of hardworking, honest, smart web
marketers who help websites earn search traffic. I hate how it’s poisoned the acronym SEO, a
title I’m proud to wear. I hate that it makes legitimate marketing tactics less fruitful. And I hate,
perhaps most of all, when it works.

Here’s a search for “buy propecia,” which is a drug I actually take to help prevent hair loss. (My
wife doesn’t think I’d look very good sans hair.)
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Essays
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Essays

Author: Winthrop Mackworth Praed

Author of introduction, etc.: Henry Morley

Editor: Sir George Young

Release date: October 9, 2023 [eBook #71838]

Language: English

Original publication: London: George Routledge and Sons, 1887

Credits: Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading

Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced
from images available at The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS ***

 CONTENTS
MORLEY’S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY.
INTRODUCTION.
PREFACE.
RHYME AND REASON.
ON THE PRACTICAL BATHOS.
NICKNAMES.
YES AND NO.
THOUGHTS ON THE WORDS “TURN
OUT.”
SOLITUDE IN A CROWD.
POLITENESS AND POLITESSE.
A WINDSOR BALL.
LOVERS’ VOWS.
ON THE PRACTICAL ASYNDETON.
ON HAIR-DRESSING.
ON A CERTAIN AGE.
NOT AT HOME.
MUSÆ O’CONNORIANÆ.
THE KNIGHT AND THE KNAVE.
MAD—QUITE MAD!
THE BOGLE OF ANNESLIE; OR, THE
THREE-CORNERED HAT.
ON THE PROPOSED ESTABLISHMENT
OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY AT ETON.
THE MISTAKE; OR, SIXES AND
SEVENS.
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.
MR. LOZELL’S ESSAY ON
WEATHERCOCKS.
GOLIGHTLY’S ESSAY ON BLUES.
OLD BOOTS.
ON THE DIVINITIES OF THE
ANCIENTS.
REMINISCENCES OF MY YOUTH.
ON TRUE FRIENDSHIP.
THE COUNTRY CURATE.
THE WEDDING:
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE OF
PEREGRINE COURTENAY.
ABDICATION OF THE KING OF CLUBS.
THE UNION CLUB.
MY FIRST FOLLY.
POINTS.
LEONORA.
DAMASIPPUS.
MY FIRST FLAME.
THE INCONVENIENCE OF HAVING AN
ELDER BROTHER.
TOUJOURS PERDRIX.
THE BEST ΒΑΤ IN THE SCHOOL.
 Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

ESSAYS
BY

WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED

COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY

SIR GEORGE YOUNG, Bart., Μ.A.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLEY

LL.D., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS
BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL
GLASGOW AND NEW YORK

1887
 MORLEY’S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY.

1.Sheridan’s Plays.
2.Plays from Molière. By English Dramatists.
3.Marlow’s Faustus and Goethe’s Faust.
4.Chronicle of the Cid.
5.Rabelais’ Gargantua and the Heroic Deeds of Pantagruel.
6.Machiavelli’s Prince.
7.Bacon’s Essays.
8.Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year.
9.Locke on Civil Government and Filmer’s “Patriarcha.”
10.Butler’s Analogy of Religion.
11.Dryden’s Virgil.
12.Scott’s Demonology and Witchcraft.
13.Herrick’s Hesperides.
14.Coleridge’s Table-Talk.
15.Boccaccio’s Decameron.
16.Sterne’s Tristram Shandy.
17.Chapman’s Homer’s Iliad.
18.Mediæval Tales.
19.Voltaire’s Candide, and Johnson’s Rasselas.
20.Jonson’s Plays and Poems.
21.Hobbes’s Leviathan.
22.Samuel Butler’s Hudibras.
23.Ideal Commonwealths.
24.Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey.
25 & 26. Don Quixote.
27.Burlesque Plays and Poems.
28.Dante’s Divine Comedy. Longfellow’s Translation.
29.Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield, Plays, and Poems.
30.Fables and Proverbs from the Sanskrit. (Hitopadesa.)
31.Lamb’s Essays of Elia.
32.The History of Thomas Εllwood.
33.Emerson’s Essays, &c.
34.Southey’s Life of Nelson.
35.De Quincey’s Confessions of an Opium Eater, &c.
36.Stories of Ireland. By Miss Edgeworth.
37.Frere’s Aristophanes: Acharnians, Knights, Birds.
38.Burke’s Speeches and Letters.
39.Thomas à Kempis.
40.Popular Songs of Ireland.
41.Potter’s Æschylus.
42.Goethe’s Faust: Part II. Anster’s Translation.
43.Famous Pamphlets.
44.Francklin’s Sophocles.
45.M. G. Lewis’s Tales of Terror and Wonder.
46.Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.
47.Drayton’s Barons’ Wars, Nymphidia, &c.
48.Cobbett’s Advice to Young Men.
49.The Banquet of Dante.
50.Walker’s Original.
51.Schiller’s Poems and Ballads.
52.Peele’s Plays and Poems.
53.Harrington’s Oceana.
54.Euripides: Alcestis and other Plays.
55.Praed’s Essays.
“Marvels of clear type and general neatness.”—Daily Telegraph.
 INTRODUCTION.
The readers of our Library are greatly indebted to Sir George Young for his
kindness in presenting them with this first collected edition of the prose
writings of his uncle, Winthrop Mackworth Praed. He little knows the
charm of the bright regions of Literature who cannot yield himself to full
enjoyment of their infinite variety. As we pass from book to book, it is a
long leap from Euripides to the brilliant young Etonian who brought all the
grace of happy youth into such work as we have here. Happy the old who
can grow young again with this book in their hands. If we all came into the
world mature, and there were no childhood and youth about us, what a dull
world it would be! Any book is a prize that brings the fresh and cheerful
voice of youth into the region of true Literature. Of Praed’s work in this
way none can speak better than Sir George Young in his Preface.
Of his life, these are a few dry facts. He was born in 1802, lost his
mother early, and went to Eton at the age of twelve. He was still at Eton
when, at the age of eighteen, in 1820, he and his friend Walter Blount edited
the Etonian, which began its course in October 1820 and ended in July
1821. In the following October Praed went to Trinity College, Cambridge,
where he obtained a Fellowship. He obtained medals for Greek odes and
epigrams, a medal for English verse, and he was still full of the old grace of
playfulness. He was called to the Bar in 1829. An elder sister died in 1830,
and his love for her is shown in tender touches of his later verse. The vers
de société which he wrote, and which no man wrote better than Praed,
retain their charm because their playfulness is on the surface of a manly
earnest nature, from the depth of which a tone now and then rises that
comes straight into our hearts. Praed was in Parliament from November
1830 until after the passing of the Reform Bill, and again in 1834, when he
was Secretary to the Board of Control under Sir Robert Peel. His father died
in 1835; in the same year Praed married; and in July 1839 he died, aged
thirty-seven.
Η. Μ.
October 1887.
 PREFACE.
The prose pieces of Winthrop Mackworth Praed have never before been
presented in a collected form. They are worthy of preservation, in a degree
hardly less than his verse; though by the latter he has hitherto been best
known, and will probably be longest remembered. At the time when the
high quality of his literary work obtained for the Etonian the honour,
unprecedented in the case of a school magazine, of a complimentary notice
in the Quarterly Review, it was to the merit of his prose, as much as to that
of his poetry, that attention was called by the reviewer. It is not, however, as
the phenomenally precocious work of a schoolboy that these papers have
been thought worthy of reproduction in the Universal Library. The
circumstance that they were, most of them, written at Eton, is only to be
accounted of as adding to their interest, by giving the reader a point of view
from which to sympathize with the writer’s humour. It would, however, be a
mistake to consider the senior Etonian of 1820 as corresponding to any
reasonable description of what is generally denoted by the word
“schoolboy.” At the age of eighteen or nineteen, when his grandfathers had
already taken their first degrees, subjected to a discipline as light as that of a
modern University, more free to study in the way the spirit moved him, or
not to study at all, than the undergraduate of a “good” college now, the
pupil of Goodall, Keate, or Plumptre was of a maturer sort than is now to be
found among the denizens of Sixth Forms. He came between two ages in
the history of our Public Schools, in neither of which could such literary
work as here follows have been produced by a “schoolboy.” There preceded
him the age in which a youth went early to the University, and early into
life. There has followed the day in which “boys” at school, when no longer
boys, but men in years, are held fast by discipline to boyish studies, or at
any rate to boyish amusements. The circumstance that a few individuals, of
great and early matured literary gifts, were assembled together under these
conditions at a single school, on two several occasions, in two successive
generations, at an interval of about thirty years, operated to enrich English
Literature with two graceful and unique volumes. Of the Microcosm, the
best pieces are due to Canning and Frere; in the Etonian, the share of Praed
surpasses and eclipses that of his contemporaries. From his University
friends, indeed, he derived powerful help; there are a few lines of poetry, by
William Sidney Walker, better than any of his own; and there are a few
pages of prose, by Henry Nelson Coleridge, which are also better; but for
sustained excellence, and for an energy and variety in production, truly
extraordinary under the circumstances, Praed, and Praed only, is the hero of
the Etonian; the over-praised and ambitiously constructed efforts of his
friend Moultrie not excepted.
After Praed left Eton, his bent led him to verse, rather than to prose, as
his appropriate vehicle of expression; and it was only occasionally that he
sent a prose contribution, either to Knight’s Quarterly Magazine, or to the
London Magazine, or to the ephemeral pages of the Brazen Head. Two
speeches of his in Parliament were “reprinted by request;” but they seem to
have owed this distinction rather to the special interest, at the time, of their
subject-matter, than to any exceptional finish in their literary form. They
were speeches in Committee on the Reform Bills of 1831 and 1832, the one
on moving as an amendment what was afterwards known as the “three-
cornered constituency” arrangement; the other on moving, similarly, that
freeholds within the limits of boroughs should confer votes for the borough
and not for the county. His partly versified squib, “The Union Club,” in
which he parodied the style and matter of the principal speakers among
Cambridge undergraduates in 1822, has been included in this collection, for
the sake especially of the comical imitations of Lord Macaulay and Lord
Lytton. It was written, as Macaulay himself informed me, “for Cookesley to
recite at supper-parties.” The late Rev. William Gifford Cookesley, long an
assistant master at Eton, who acted as Lord Beaconsfield’s cicerone when
he came down to the spot to make studies for “Coningsby,” is gratefully
remembered by many of his scholars for his genuine, if somewhat irregular,
love of literature, and for his hearty sympathy with boyish good-fellowship.
He was a contemporary of Praed’s both at Eton and Cambridge, and long
preserved, in maturer years, his admirable faculty of mimicry.
Among the characteristics of these pieces will be found an almost
unfailing good taste; a polished style, exhibiting a sparkle, as of finely
constructed verse; a strong love of sheer fun, not ungracefully indulged; a
dash of affectation, inoffensive, and such as is natural in a new-comer, upon
whom the eyes of his circle have, by no fault of his, been drawn; a healthy,
breezy spirit, redolent of the playing-fields; and a hearty appreciation of the
pleasures arising from a first fresh plunge into the waters of literature.
Powers of observation are shown of no mean order, and powers, also, of
putting in a strong light, whether attractive or ridiculous, the more obvious
features of everyday characters. These powers afterwards ripened into a
truly admirable skill of political and social verse-writing; and they showed
signs of deepening into a more forcible satiric power, tempered with
humour, as his too short career drew towards its end.
Praed is moreover especially to be commended in that he is never dull.
Although free from “sensationalism,” he is not forgetful that the first
business of a writer is—to be read. There are gentle lessons of good
manners, of unselfishness, and of chivalry, to be read in his pages; they are
not loudly trumpeted, but there they are; there is also a sincere respect for
great minds and for good work in literature, enlivened, not neutralized, by
unfailing high spirits. One could dispense, certainly, with some of his
antithesis; perhaps with all his punning; but life is not so short, or so lively
in itself, as to leave us no time to be amused, and no ground for gratitude to
the writers who amuse us.
The only omissions from this collection are, besides the speeches above
mentioned, the prefaces contributed, in the taste of the day, to the several
numbers of the Etonian, under the title “The King of Clubs,” and to
Knight’s Quarterly Magazine, under the title “Castle Vernon.” These are
lively in their way, but unequal, and full of allusions which would require
notes to make them intelligible. Occasionally, too, they are padded out with
contributory matter by other hands. One rather ambitious failure, to be
found in the Etonian, “On Silent Sorrow,” has also been omitted, and will
not be missed.
It should be added, that the leading articles of the Morning Post
newspaper, from August 1832 to some time in the autumn of 1834, were for
the most part of Praed’s writing. Many of them are exceedingly well
written; but their contents are, of necessity, too ephemeral for reproduction
in these pages.
GEORGE YOUNG.
October 1887.

Praed’s Essays.
 RHYME AND REASON.

“Non eadem est ætas, non mens.”—Horace.

He whose life has not been one continued monotony; he who has been
susceptible of different passions, opposite in their origins and effects, needs
not to be told that the same objects, the same scenes, the same incidents,
strike us in a variety of lights, according to the temper and inclination with
which we survey them. To borrow an illustration from external scenes,—if
we are situated in the centre of a shady valley, our view is confined and our
prospect bounded; but if we ascend the topmost heights of the mountain by
which that valley is overshadowed, the eye wanders luxuriantly over a
perpetual succession of beautiful objects, until the mental faculties appear
to catch new freedom from the extension of the sight; we breathe a purer
air, and are inspired with purer emotions.
Thus it is with men who differ from each other in their tastes, their
studies, or their professions. They look on the same external objects with a
different internal perception, and the view which they take of surrounding
scenes is beautified or distorted, according to their predominant pursuit or
their prevailing inclination.
We were led into this train of ideas by a visit which we lately paid to an
old friend, who, from a strong taste for agricultural pursuits, has abandoned
the splendour and absurdity of a town life, and devoted to the cultivation of
a large farming establishment, in a picturesque part of England, all the
advantages of a strong judgment and a good education. His brother, on the
contrary, who was a resident at the farm during our visit, has less of sound
understanding than of ardent genius, and is more remarkable for the warmth
of his heart than the soundness of his head. In short, to describe them in a
word, Jonathan sees with the eye of a merchant, and Charles with that of an
enthusiast; Jonathan is a man of business, and Charles is a poet. The
contrast between their tempers is frequently the theme of conversation at
the social meetings of the neighbourhood; and it is always found that the
old and the grave shake their heads at the almost boyish enthusiasm of
Charles, while the young and the imprudent indulge in severe sarcasms at
the mercenary and uninspired moderation of his brother. All parties,
however, concur in admiring the uninterrupted cordiality which subsists
between them, and in laughing good-humouredly at the various whims and
foibles of these opposite characters, who are known throughout the country
by the titles of Rhyme and Reason.
We arrived at the farm as Jonathan was sitting down to his substantial
breakfast. We were delighted to see our old friend, now in the decline of
life, answering so exactly the description of Cowper—

An honest man close-buttoned to the chin,

Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.

We felt an inward satisfaction in contemplating his frieze coat, whose début

we remember to have witnessed five years ago, and in speculating upon the
snows which five additional winters had left upon his head since our last
interview. It was some time before we recovered sufficiently from our
reverie to inquire after the well-being of our younger companion, who had
not yet made his appearance at the board. “Oh!” said Jonathan, “Charles is
in his heyday years; we must indulge him for the present; we can’t expect
such regularity from five-and-twenty as from six-and-fifty.” He had hardly
done speaking when a loud halloo sounded as an avant-courier of Charles’s
approach, and in less than a minute he presented himself before us. “Ten
thousand pardons!” he cried. “One’s enough,” said his brother. “I’ve seen
the finest sunrise,” said Charles. “You’re wet through,” said Jonathan. “I’m
all over rapture,” said Rhyme. “You’re all over dirt,” said Reason.
With some difficulty Charles was persuaded to retire for the re-
adjustment of his dress, while the old man continued his meal with a
composure which proved he was not unused to the morning excursions of
his volatile yoke-fellow. By the time he had got through his beefsteak, and
three columns of the Courier, Charles re-entered, and despatched the
business of eating with a rapidity in which many a modern half-starved
rhymer would be glad to emulate him. A walk was immediately proposed;
but the one had scarcely reached an umbrella, and the other prepared his
manuscript book, when a slight shower of rain prevented our design.
“Provoking,” said Rhyme. “Good for the crop,” said Reason.
The shower, however, soon ceased, and a fine clear sun encouraged us to
resume our intentions, without fear of a second disappointment. As we
walked over the estate, we were struck with the improvements made by our
friend, both as regarded the comfort and the value of the property; while
now and then we could not suppress a smile on observing the rustic arbour
which Charles had designed, or the verses which he had inscribed on our
favourite old oak.
It was determined that we should ascend a neighbouring hill, which was
dear to us from its having been the principal scene of our boyhood’s
amusements. “We must make haste,” said Charles, “or we shall miss the
view.” “We must make haste,” said Jonathan, “or we shall catch cold on our
return.” Their actions seemed always to amalgamate, though their motives
were always different. We observed a tenant of our friend ploughing a small
field, and stopped a short time to regard the contented appearance of the
man, and the cheerful whistle with which he called to his cattle. “Beatus ille
qui procul negotiis,” said the poet. “A poor team, though,” said his brother.
Our attention was next excited by a level meadow, whose green hue, set
off by the mixture of the white fleeces of a beautiful flock of sheep, was, to
the observer of Nature, a more enviable sight than the most studied
landscape of Gainsborough’s pencil. “Lovely colours!” ejaculated Charles.
“Fine mutton,” observed Jonathan. “Delightful scene for a rustic hop!”
cried the enthusiast. “I am thinking of planting hops,” said the farmer.
We reached the summit of the hill, and remained for some moments in
silent admiration of one of the most variegated prospects that ever the
country presented to the contemplation of its most ardent admirer. The
mellow verdure of the meadows, intermingled here and there with the
sombre appearance of ploughed land, the cattle reclining in the shade, the
cottage of the rustic peeping from behind the screen of a luxuriant hedge,
formed a tout-ensemble which every eye must admire, but which few pens
can describe. “A delightful landscape!” said Charles. “A rich soil,” said
Jonathan. “What scope for description!” cried the first. “What scope for
improvement!” returned the second.
As we returned we passed the cottage of the peasant whom we had seen
at his plough in the morning. The family were busily engaged in their
several domestic occupations. One little chubby-faced rogue was
conducting Dobbin to his stable, another was helping his sister to coop up
the poultry, and a third was incarcerating the swine, who made a vigorous
resistance against their youthful antagonist. “Tender!” cried Rhyme—he
was listening to the nightingale. “Very tender!” replied Reason—he was
looking at the pigs.
As we drew near home, we met an old gentleman walking with his
daughter, between whom and Charles a reciprocal attachment was said to
exist. The lateness of the evening prevented much conversation, but the few
words which were spoken again brought into contrast the opposite tempers
of my friends. “A fine evening, Madam,” said the man of sense, and bowed.
“I shall see you to-morrow, Mary!” said the lover, and pressed her hand. We
looked back upon her as she left us. After a pause: “She is an angel!” sighed
Charles. “She is an heiress,” observed Jonathan. “She has ten thousand
perfections,” cried Rhyme. “She has ten thousand pounds,” said Reason.
We left them the next morning, and spent some days in speculations on
the causes which enabled such union of affections to exist with such
diversities of taste. For ourselves, we must confess that, while Reason has
secured our esteem, Rhyme has run away with our hearts; we have
sometimes thought with Jonathan, but we have always felt with Charles.
 ON THE PRACTICAL BATHOS.

“To sink the deeper—rose the higher.”—Pope.

Although many learned scholars have laboured with much diligence in the
illustration of the Bathos in poetry, we do not remember to have seen any
essay calculated to point out the beauties and advantages of this figure
when applied to actual life. Surely there is no one who will not allow that
the want of such an essay is a desideratum which ought, as soon as possible,
to be supplied. Conscious as we are that our feeble powers are not properly
qualified to fill up this vacuum in scholastic literature; yet, since the learned
commentators of the present day have their hands full either of Greek or
politics, we, an unlearned, but we trust a harmless, body of quacks, will
endeavour to supply the place of those who kill by rule, and will
accordingly offer, for the advantage of our fellow-citizens, a few brief
remarks on the Practical Bathos.
We will first lay it down as a principle that the ἀπροσδόκητον, as well in
life as in poetry, is a figure, the beauties of which are innumerable and
incontrovertible. For the benefit of my fair readers (for Phœbus and Bentley
forbid that an Etonian should here need a Lexicon) I will state that the
figure ἀπροσδόκητον is “that which produceth things unexpected.” Take a
few examples. In poetry there is a notable instance of this figure in the
“Œdipus Tyrannus” of Sophocles, where the messenger who discloses to
Œdipus his mistake in supposing Polybus to be his father, believing that the
intelligence he brings is of the most agreeable nature, plants a dagger in the
heart of his hearer by every word he utters. But Sophocles, although he
must be acknowledged a great master of the dramatic art, is infinitely
surpassed in the use of this figure by our good friend Mr. Farley of Covent
Garden. When we sit in mute astonishment to survey the various pictures
which he conjures up, as it were by the wand of a sorcerer, in a moment—
when columns and coal-holes, palaces and pig-sties, summer and winter,
succeed each other with such perpetually diversified images; we are
continually exclaiming, “Mr. Farley, what next?” Every minute presents us
with a new and more perfect specimen of this figure. Far be it from us to