The editor of _Mother Goose’s Melody_, although the Preface declares him “_a very great Writer_ of very little Books”, has none of that contempt for “Nonsense” which philosophers are apt to show. He traces “the Custom of making Nonsense Verses in our Schools” to “the Old British Nurses, the first Preceptors of Youth”, and speaks of them with evident respect. Yet he shows no bias towards the more imaginative absurdities. It is the use of a rhyme for ironic comment, or its lyric quality that directs his choice.