and six wide, in the public celler, where they drink hock under a cloud of smoke raised from their own pipes. One may swear these are the genuine decendants of the ancient Saxons, who imagined the joys of heaven to consist in drinking ale out of the skulls of their enemies! Women, the only venial objects of idolatry, seem not here to hold any rank in society, or to form the connecting charm which binds the jarring principles of human nature together. Man, solitary man, meets in clubs and companies, to doze, to drink, and to dispute. The very idea is odious and disgusting. WRAXALL.

SECT. XXIX.

CONVERSATION AT COURTRAY IN FLANDERS, WITH AN IMPATIENT PASSENGER FOR THE DEPARTURE OF A DILIGENCE.

WHILE I was changing horses, I was peculiarly, stricken with the singular impatience of a passenger: for the departure of the diligence. I observed him to intreat his companions, with a gentleness and elegant courtesy, to hasten the same; then he flew to the landlord, to give his commands to the driver, then to the driver himself, then to the stable to see if the horses were harnessed; then to the gate-way, biting his nails, and walking backwards and forwards, much agitated. His countenance was urgently thoughtful ; his complexion livid; his eyes sunk into his head, and over-arched with a large circular and black brow; his look altogether seemed hagged through fatigue, and an inward dejection which preyed upon him. I judged him to he about five and thirty years of age. He was genteel; above the common in his manner, but very negligently attired.. In short, his appear. ance touched me home, and awakened my curiosity.

Mon Dieu! cried the Flemish Whip, that there was a little more patience in the world. It would be a six sons out of your pocket, if there was, I thought within myself; for I observed the impatient

passenger to give him that little sum, as a stimulus to accelerate his motions.

A difficulty arose, which increased the passenger's impatience beyond all bounds. He was almost mad with disappointment; for as the diligence was preparing to set off, a female passenger was unfortunately missing, who, having some business in the town, absented herself till the usual time of its departure; and now the driver declared that it was impossible to set off before the clock struck a certain hour, the stated time for its departure, unless Madame arrived.

My barouche was, at this instant drawing up to the door; and as curiosity was fermenting just as strong in me as impatience in the passenger, I offered him a seat in it; concluding Ghent was his next station.

There was a polite gratitude in the manner with which he accompanied his simple thanks; and he flew like an arrow to the diligence, snatching out of it a small valise. We ascended our vehicle, and it moved in`time to the impetuosity of my companion's wishes. A cloud of melancholy soon overshadowed his countenance; his eyes were immoveably fixed, This torpor and thought seemed busy within him. continued upon him the greatest part of our stage to Ghent ; excepting, that now and then, it was broken by a few polite expressions, to convince me of the greatness of his obligations.

I could not avoid puzzling my brain about the character of this man; turning in my head over and over, the motives that could possibly ferment such great impatience to arrive at the end of his journey. There was education in his look; which made me address him with,

"Aurum per medios ire satellites
"Et perrumpere amat faxa potentius
"Ictu fulmineo-

But your present had not the

departure of the diligence.

power

the

to procure Horace is certainly

right, answered my companion; the bribe was only

of silver, the power of gold, doubtless, would have conquered the driver's scruples about the lady: he would have driven off without her. But when a man is in haste, I replied, he should not travel in a Flemish diligence. But this, says my companion, is the only convenience, when our bad fortune will not permit us to purchase a more expeditious one. Pour moi les deniers me manque; I am as poor as a church mouse, and this is another reason for my wishing to be at the end of my journey; where, God be thanked! I should have-Yes, says my stranger, making a reflective pause, and repeating the words, "I should have some of this worlds trifles."-Herehe turned up his eyes with a groan, shrugged up his shoulder, and pressed his hands on his knees

And why that piteous, miserable look ?-thy home, and this world's comforts too!-yet this drew forth,

—“ A sigh so hideous and profound,

"That it did seem to shatter all his bulk,

"And end his being.

It is unique, I thought, that of all the Frenchmen I ever met with in my life, the natural character of the nation should prevail so little in my fellow-trav eller; barring the shrug of the shoulder, and the wan meagre countenance, there was nothing Gallie in him. The French, even in the most awful periods of their distress, discover certain intervals, in which the traits of their native cheerfulness are conspicuous; but the spirit of my companion seemed enveloped in an endless gloom.

The subjects we conversed on were not much diversified, and rather confined to the classies. He seemed well read, and his remarks were tinctured with judgment. In the course of that natural and innocent vanity, of displaying our little store of learning, I could not suppress the effect which the eighth Öde of Horace had upon me, which my companion repeated with no small degree of energy. He said it was his favourite Ode, when he was onge in

love. It was like the protasis of ancient drama to me, where the subject of the piece became entertaining. It suspended for some time our_conversation, and proved a most powerful advocate for the romantic feelings I was brooding upon.-Âye, says I,

"Cur neque militaris

"Inter æquales equitet, Gallica nec lupatis
"Temperet ora frænis?

As I live, this is a person above the common rank of people; whom love, at a particular period of his life, has cruelly forced into some affeeting adventure; and, perhaps, driven by the facinating charms of a Lydia, into a desperate path of fortune. He is eertainly tout autre homme" than his appearance announces. So, while I was finishing my pedantry with,

Quid latet, ut marinæ

Filium dicunt Thetidis sub lachrymosa Troja
Funera, ne virilis

Cultus in cædem & Lycias proriperet cater vas?

and positively settled in my mind, that this was actu ally the true case, I found the barouche entering Ghent.

There are ever circumstances to disappoint the wishes of those, who have the world to run through, which, by the bye, is something like travelling through this part of Flanders, where we find post-horses heavy and slow; and, in my opinion, every thing cheerless and comfortless in the inns; grass growing in the centre of towns; and all the arts and sciences uncultivated, as their streets are neglected by the industrious footsteps of men. I was flattering myself, with learning the historic feats of my dejected companion; when I found myself, on my arrival at Ghent, ready to be robbed of this "bon bouche" for my curiosity. As for myself. I can scarcely reconcile these mortifications, about which nine tenths of the world do not care a German kruytzer.

DOUGLAS.

SECT. XXX.

A SERMON TO ENGLISH TRAVELLERS.

"O magnus posthac inimicis risus. !"

HOR. SAT. 2. LIB. 2.

WHEN your equipages arrive in a town on the Continent, the rascals of trades-people, and much greater knaves of inn-keepers, are laying plans to plunder you; and troops of famished wretches, devoted to any office that travellers think proper to employ them, like starved Tyrolian wolves prowling for rapine, surround you on every side; for they conceive your riches to be immense, and your ostentatious extravagance still more excessive. They first Hatter you on the known liberality of your character as an Englishman, and then they prescribe in the most servile manner to all your absurd ridiculous caprices. The police and shopkeepers have in pay their lay-laques, who surround your hotels; the former to learn your history, perhaps, from your English valet, who probably may smatter just enough of the language to perplex you on all occasions; and the latter to cozen you in their boutiques, where you pay cent. per cent. more than the natives.

The inhabitants of distinction invite you into their circles to filch you at their card parties. A pert coquet, of some beauty and fashion, shams an intrigue with you, to wheedle you to lose your money at piquet; who, while you are racking your imagination to tell her some dull story, and to play off some piece of gallant witticism, is counting her game, and under the mask of nonchalant badinage," studying to eapot you. You suffer your purses to be drained with a grace, in hopes of acquiring the name of Madame's bien aime; while the lady smiles at your bad imitation of foreign intrigue, and supremely ridicules your English fadaise.

Men, who have been trained from their earliest infancy, under the hand of a friseur, to wear their bags,