Amusements of other nations.

To yield to man thy precious store How oft is nature travell'd o'er

By art for ever on the foot

To find some undiscover'd route;

As changeful taste persuades the mind
To leave its fav'rite haunts behind.
Some from the busy world retire

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To seek the treasure they desire ;

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But most despair to find it single
And with the eager crowd commingle,
As hounds come sooner on the track
Of deer, while hunting in a pack.
From hence, would turbid Romans flow,
Where Death maintain'd the costly show;
And Spanish Dons more gravely meet
Where bulls tormented yields the treat:
Th' Italian flies for recreation

To mix in public conversation;

Where cards and dice can never reach

To lay embargo on the speech;
Nor heels divested of their lead
Usurp dominion of the head.

Say tourists! when they meet togethe
Of what they talk, the wind or weather :
Of whips and coaches are they full,
Or grooms, t'avoid their growing dull
Or of what sauce they love at table,
Or how they regulate their stable?
Grant heav'n, that such may ne'er appear
To verge upon our hemisphere!

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Observations on the state of conversation.

These dull Assemblies suit alone
The talents of a morbid drone :
For how can flow the least delight
In conversation all the night;

What could we say, but o'er and o'er

The same old thing we said before ?

Since here, none e'er employs his wits
Save while he at the table sits;
Where every dish before his eyes
Bids some remark ingenious rise:
Whether 'tis roasted well, or boil'd,
Then eloquently mourn if spoil'd;
And next expatiate on some spice
That gives peculiar flavor nice:
So none their intellects dilate,

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Beyond the limits of their plate; (1)

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(1) Perhaps there never was a period in which conversation was reduced to so miserable an ebb as at present. In even (what are called) polite circles, the mind is observed walking through the dull detail of facts which every one is apprized of, and which most of the persons present have repeated: but they still hold attentive ears like the Athenians, who are described amidst the ruins of their state, and loaded with a foreign yoke, to stop every passenger and enquire "If they could tell any newer thing." The mind seems to have lost its etherial principle, or if that is even discovered, far from being observed traversing the interminable regions of taste; it appears like the ostrich that never soars, but only uses her wings to aid her legs in running over the desert.

The cause of this melancholy effect is discovered in our obsti

F

Its degeneracy.

Unless it haps that one may chat
About some person grown too fat;
Of hunters, foxes, or his hounds,
Or value and extent of grounds;
And each, from distant objects brought,
Is always deem'd an abstract thought.

Sometimes, propitiously the sky, (Our lack of converse to supply)

nate warfare with the Continent, which seems to spurn every limit but eternity; and in its consequences, namely, idle and ineffectual politics, which are debated in ranks as devoid of influence in the state, as controul over the tides. As opposition is the soul of such themes, and as every man is capable of asserting something, however ridiculous; the fretted mind assumes an asperity unknown even in the Gothic ages, (whose circumscribed sphere cherished the spirit of gallantry) and animation upon every subject is not at present excited by the diffusive glow of imagination, but by the pointed fires of irritated feeling.

Surely the author is guilty of injustice towards the nation, in not mentioning its unrivalled powers in the art of extending the story of an abortive expedition, or a vexatious inquiry (instituted by some person, who by scandalizing charac ter brings himself into existence) through many mouths; and in annexing to every barren circumstance all the ingenuous conjectures which an "entirely devoted fancy can generate!" Oh that some faithful Amanuensis would trace upon the page the course of such delicious conferences! exported to the skies, they might probably dissipate the ennui which some at present suspect reigns amongst the blest. Surely they would be a novelty to the eyes of Ploto, of Locke, and of Bolingbroke!

Local conversation.

Affords a group, with utmost bounty
A pair residing in one county:
These souls congenial when they meet
Commence an intercourse most sweet;
And talk so plain, that ev'ry ear
This charming colloquy may hear;
"You've been at Silver brook no doubt
"A famous place for catching trout;
"You know a Mr. T

lives there

"To old Sir Edward he is heir;

"And Mrs. B, she lately married?"
"Oh well indeed, and she miscarried;

"Her husband's name I dont remember;
"I was not there since last December;
"Her cousin by the mother side
“I did not know, but heard he died."
With such like gleanings both are trying
To be to room-full edifying;
And speak in consequential tone

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Convine'd the subject's all their own :

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As well might two from Lapland come
And beat aloud their magic drum ;
Or chat in language known to bears
About the pedigree of deers;
And as 'twould be a novel strain

Far more than this 'twould entertain:
While these two chatter, scarce a word
From Stentor could be faintly heard :
For in this kind of parish gabble
'Tis wonderful how fast they dabble.

Other diversions sought by the mind.

Yet still Invention brings relief
To stay the tear of ev'ry grief;
When intellectual converse fails
She still can waft some other gales ;
Else, Apathy her cap might fling

O'er ev'ry skull around the ring.
When tongues like mills no more can go
As streams of sense forget to flow;
And stops the head, a bankrupt made
The heels jump up and take the trade;
But can't consent the least to stir
'Till fiddle moves, and dulcimer ;
Whose cat gut, and whose wiry strains
Just act to them in place of brains,
To trace some figures o'er and o'er
As if were chatting to the floor:
Some turn and twist them round about
Pray will they turn them inside out ?
And briskly skip from side to side
Like balls of cork electrified;

With arms and hands low dangling down

As sleeves upon a Bishop's gown;

Or now reliev'd from state of dangling
Like arms of Polypi entangling :
While others, who are standing idle,

Are scarce restrain'd by wisdom's bridle,
Like Moorish statues in a row

With one leg ready off to go :

What miles will these have overrun

Before the rising of the sun!

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