SEMPER REFULGET.

No. 13..

Boston, Saturday, July 26, 1806.

After a quiet residence for five and twenty years in a remote part of the state, where I never felt a desire to return to the capital, which peculiar reasons induced me to abandon, I was called very recently to visit your city much against my inclination, and have here witnessed a species of foppery, with which, until a few days since, I was wholly unacquainted.

acquaintance, nor could I decently refuse an invitation to dinner from a near relation of my wife. Mr. II. was when I left town, what is called a fore-handed tradesman; but, having taken a share in some successful speculations to the West Indies. now assumes the title of merchant.

I expected at my friend's house to enjoy a plain family dinner and was not a little disappointed when I learnt that much company had been invited by my friend's son, who had lately returned from Europe, and who, I afterwards discovered, was not pleased by my making one of the party. As it was a full hour after the arrival of most of the company before dinner was announced, the interim was employed in conversation, in which from my age and the relation I bore to the family I expected to take some part; but, having unluckily never been without the limits of the Commonwealth, I was obliged to be almost silent, as every subject was tortured, by my young kinsman and his friend Mr. T., who accompanied him in his travels, into a reference to some foreign country, or ended in a description of some European custom.

An observation was made by one of the company, that the weather had been excessively dry during the present season. Now, Sir, the weather is a topic, of which every body can converse, and I was entering into a comparison of this with Once a resident in Boston, I could some former summers and intendnot but recollect some of my olded to hazard some conjectures re

garding the change, which has tak-1 culture, judging that on this subject en place in our climate since my the sparks must necesarily be silent; recollection, but was interrupted by but here again I was mistaken; for some loud observations of the trav- they immediately expressed their ellers on the weather of Montpellier contempt of American husbandry, and the sterility of that part of the and began an elaborate description Roman territory which is intersect- of the high-cultivation of France, ed by the Appian way. Though I which was represented as possesshave been a book traveller and rec-ing within itself all the luxuries, all ollected that the sterility in question | the conveniences of life. As they was not owing to dryness, but to appeared so heartily to despise their excessive wetness of situation, I own country, I next attempted to Thought opposition would be vain and suffered them to proceed.

say something of the political af-
fairs of Europe, (for at home I have
the reputation of being a profound
politician and have been repeatedly
solicited to come representative to
the General Court.)
But no op-
portunity was allowed for the dis-
play-of my abilities, for it. was in-
stantly declared, that Bonaparte rul-
cd the destinies of Europe, and the
travellers at the same time com-
menced a description of this won-
derful man in so loud a tone, that
neither could be distinctly heard
and had not dinner. been oppor-
tuely announced to stop their vocif-
erations, I believe the gentlemen
would actually have quarrelled for

At the first intermissions of their
volubility, I expressed my astonish-
ment at the number and elegance
of the buildings, which had been
erected since my residence in town,
but was stopped short by Mr. T.,
who asserted that no man could
know what magnificence was, un-
less he visited London and Paris,
and proceeded to describe St. Paul's
Cathedral and the Palais de St.
Cloud. A demure looking gentle-
man, who I learnt was a large real
estate holder, and had a concern in
several corporations, appeared to
feel some displeasure at this sweep-
ing condemnation of our architec-precedency in the narration..
ture; and seemed determined to

At table I expected conversation

draw forth something in praise of would take a different turn, as Mrs. our own country by mentioning H. and her two daughters were prethe spirit for public improvement, sent, but though the young ladies which had evinced itself in bridges, spoke of the fashions and the theatre, canals, and turnpikes, but the only it only led to encomiums on the Parieffect his remark had was to occa-sian belles and the Italian opera, in sion observations on the Wapping comparison with which the taste of and Liverpool docks, on the roads of France, which, by the command of Napoleon, had been turned into malls shaded by trees, and a contemptuous. mention by young T. of the gutter, which connects the Charles with the Merrimack.

our fair countrywomen was declared to be contemptible, and our theatrical exhibitions flat and insipid. Now as I had never been within the walls of a theatre, and had been in company with few fashionable ladies, except my young cousins, This turn in the conversation whose dresses by the way I had no gave me some time to recollect disposition to compliment, I was Anyself, and, determining not to be again necessitated to remain silent. excluded from the conversation, Every dish next passed under rehazarded a remark or two on agrifricw, and the comparison between

American and Frerich cookery nev-| foot in France or Italy. Should you write a paper for their edification L beg you would remind them of the fable of the Jack-daw who would be thought a Peacock.

failed to turn in favour of the latter. Finding every attempt to introduce subjects in which I could ake a part failed, I amused myself ith observing how readily every topic was turned out of its natural channel in order to display the store of knowledge our travellers had amassed, and, when one of the company, holding up a glass of wine, remarked that the colour was very delicate, Mr. T. declared that the position of the gentleman reminded him of the great picture in the Stadt-house at Amsterdam, in which one of the figures is represented with a glass of wine in his hand, and was so admirably executed that an English amateur once offered a thousand guineas to cut it from the

canvass.

For the Emerald.

TRANSLATION.

We are indebted to the French version
of M. Levesque for our knowledge of
the following fable by the Russian
poet Soumorokof. The only notice of
the author of which we are possessed
is derived from the same source.
"Soumorokof is the founder of the
Russian drama. Elegant like Racine,
he endeavours to imitate him in the
conduct of his plots, but he can
not penetrate the secret of our inim-
itable poet. In his comedies he has
too nearly imitated the manner of the
French comic writers without equal-
ling them. His satires are more hu-
morous than profound or pointed,
but his fables are truly meritorious,
and we have met with no writings of.
this kind possessed of more naïvetè
since those of La Fontaine."

Do, Mr. Wanderer, write something on the subject of travel'd impertinence in order to restrain these coxcombs, who have spent a few weeks abroad, and whose acquaintance in London has been confined to Threadneedle street, and whose Anowledge of French manners and customs has been acquired at the toudoirs of the Boulevards or the baguios of the palais royal, from engrossing conversation themselves and astounding by their flippancy Close modest men whose perigrinations have never extended much beyond the limits of their native town, and have nothing but sound seuse and rational remarks to receromend them. With great admi-and to believe him were not evils. ration for your writings, I am, Sir, your humble servant,

JONATHAN HOMEERED.

P.S. I have just learnt that these travelled gentlemen were a month in England and were most of that time at the manufacturing towns. They crossed the channel and spent a week at Amsterdam but never set

THE MORALIZER...A FABLE. THERE was once a reformer of morals, a decided admirer of greatness in sentiment. He counselled. and consoled the afflicted. All his neighbors looked up to Lim as a great man, and listened to his precepts as laws. Had any one been robbed? had one sustained the loss of a child or a wife? was innocence attacked and borne down by oppression? These were things of course

This philosopher had a young wife. She was beautiful. How Small a thing! in the eyes of a lovera dowdy is a goddess. Eut death has little respect for love and keeps no account of years, striking without discrimination the old and the young. Death seized in youth the wife of our philosopher. He, alas! beats his breast, rends his hair, and