386 The Golden City. [OcT 



descension, but chiefly of their manners. They always came into com- 

 pany with the air of wild beasts imperfectly tamed , and their father 

 bore so exactly the aspect of a showman, that, when he began to say 

 this is my son John, or my daughter Jane, the guest would not have 

 been surprised, had he proceeded to detail the circumstances of their 

 capture, and the mode of their subsequent discipline. His children 

 themselves lived, like Tantalus, in perpetual dread, fearing lest some 

 breach of good manners should fall on their devoted heads. Of that 

 perfection of art which consists in the concealment of art they had no 

 conception. They were constantly talking of politeness. 



Their intention in inviting Maurice, was to overwhelm him with 

 alternate pleasure and mortification, and send him home deeply im- 

 pressed with his own meanness and their superiority. On the first day 

 he afforded them much entertainment, by his hungry amazement at the 

 delay of dinner. At two o'clock he thought it probable they dined at 

 three, and so on, for several hours ; but at six, he felt certain they would 

 not dine at all, and even if they should, he doubted whether he should 

 be alive to partake of the recast. At seven, however, he welcomed the 

 sound of a bell, and learnt it was the signal for dressing, upon which 

 he hurried up stairs, and returning with much precipitation, after the 

 lapse of five minutes, was surprised to find several of the party not yet 

 set out on the errand he had so speedily accomplished. 



At dinner he eat enormously of the first course, supposing it to be 

 the only one, and called three times for beer. The forks puzzled him 

 extremely, and he seemed wholly unable to determine which side should 

 be kept uppermost, but he failed to apply them to their most important 

 use, and employed his knife where its principal attribute of cutting was 

 more than needless. His companions were shocked ; nor was the sub- 

 ject so disgustingly stale to them, as to check the wit of Alexander, the 

 eldest son, and deter him from inquiring, with great simplicity, whether 

 he had seen the Indian Jugglers, and insidiously leading him to explain 

 their method of thrusting knives down their throats. 



In the evening, the young ladies entertained him with Italian music, 

 and would not believe he understood nothing of it. One asked his 

 opinion of Rossini, and another was certain he liked Beethoven ; but 

 the greatest mirth was excited by his replying to a question respecting 

 a song he held in his hand, that he could not tell its name, but it was 

 from " Nozzy die Figaro, by Mozzart." Then he was entreated to sing 

 himself, and with so much urgency, that he was obliged to yield ; for- 

 tunately, he selected a comic subject, and though his auditors were too 

 polite to laugh, he had no reason to be dissatisfied with the amusement 

 they exhibited. 



He remarked that the song was in a play, and inquired if they had 

 ever seen it performed. They replied in the negative ; and fancying 

 himself in one respect at least their superior, he began to relate how 

 exquisitely he had seen it acted by a strolling company in his native 

 town. They heard him gravely till he concluded, and then gave him 

 to understand that they never frequented the theatres in London, and 

 that, in fact, no body ever did ; an assertion which much amazed him 

 at first, since he had been informed they were often almost full ; but 

 they soon explained themselves more clearly, and abashed him by the 

 conviction that he had introduced a subject of notorious vulgarity. 



A disquisition on the metropolis naturally ensued, and here, having 



