168 THE TABLE D'HOTE. 



monkey perched on the branch of a tree by his side. A small white 

 mark is fixed in the centre of the Indian's face, breast, arms, and thighs; 

 the shooter, who is placed at the distance of fifteen hundred feet, indi- 

 cates the particular spot at which he proposes to aim before he discharges 

 his piece. If, missing the man, (which rarely happens) he strikes the 

 monkey, a small fine is levied, by way of punishment. I have seen one 

 of these painted figures, with the whole central part of the body, about 

 the region of the heart, completely beaten out, while every other portion 

 of the target, especially the monkey, remained untouched. 



.A., xl . 



THE TABLE D'HOTE. 



A PAPER OF MY UNCLE'S. 



Hope, Fortune's cheating lotterie, 



Where for one prize an hundred blanks there be ; 



Fond archer, Hope, who tak'st thy aim so far, 



That still or short or wide thine arrows are ; 



Thin empty cloud, which the eye deceives 



With shapes that our own fancy gives ! 



A cloud, which gilt and painted now appears, 



But must drop presently in tears ! 



When thy false beams o'er Reason's light prevail, 



By ignusfatui for north stars we sail. 



COWLEY. The Mistress. 



IT not unusually happens, that when men of a capricious temper are 

 at variance with society, they believe themselves infallibly in love with 

 solitude ; and, as a repudiated or incensed lover will fly to the antipodes 

 of previous predilection, to vex, if possible, the last divinity he wor- 

 shipped so, " the stricken deer," of human intercourse betakes himself 

 unregretted to experiments of loneliness and isolation. It is somewhat 

 unfortunate that we cannot reform our fellow-creatures according to the 

 last suggestions of our will ; and equally unfortunate it is, that when we 

 see this absolute impossibility, we should not endeavour by concession, 

 by conciliation, and other social methods, to reduce those inconveniences, 

 which never yield to violent reproach or cynical disgust. It is a despe- 

 rate expedient, truly, to forsake the manifest advantages and comfort of 

 the sphere that we have lived in, and while affecting to chastise the 

 world for its misusage of us, to superadd to it the poignancy of self- 

 vexation, and to enlarge our sorrows while we render them ridiculous. 



I could not refrain from these remarks, on reading an eccentric paper 

 of my uncle's ; of a personage, respecting whom I have a word to say. 

 He has been variously misrepresented; his identity has been as variously 

 declared; notwithstanding, it is most unlikely he will ever be distinctly 

 known ; if he should be so, his memory must answer for the utterance of 

 some few hasty notions. On a late occasion, he was rated as the vilifier 

 of a town ; his fantastic rhapsody was treated as a systematic satire ; 

 aided by the conscience of the few, and the startled vanity of the many, 

 the trivial expressions of his anger were absolutely magnified into opinions 

 of deliberate reproach. This pained him ; and, I believe, that if his 

 " diary" conferred one pang, he would have heartily lamented it. His 



