1830.] The Golden City. 387 



never seen it, he felt himself in very deep shade, and, while they 

 descanted on its charms, he was not a little galled by their commisera- 

 tion of his ignorance. London seemed the very Utopia of their ima- 

 ginations the concentration of all that was beautiful to the eye, and 

 delightful to the intellect. It was the seat and source of all merit ; other 

 regions shone only by its reflected lustre ; they esteemed Nature an 

 architect inferior to Mr. Nash ; and could the moon and stars have been 

 " warranted town-made," they would have liked them better. 



Every succeeding day added to the humiliation Maurice already 

 began to experience ; and all the divisions of the day had their appro- 

 priate annoyances. If he walked out, he detested his boots or his 

 gloves ; if he rode, he inwardly cursed his breeches ; and at dinner, he 

 was so bothered by French names for the commonest dishes, that he 

 was reduced to the phrases, " I'll trouble you/' or, " a little of that 

 dish, if you please ;" and if he was asked to take any particular wine, 

 he gave a hurried assent, though, for aught he knew of its appellation, 

 it might have been a solution of arsenic. 



" And who," he inquired, " were the persons that caused him this 

 vexatious abasement ?" Merely a London merchant, .at one time not 

 much richer than himself, content with a plain cypher on his seal, 

 instead of the splendid coat of arms of horned dogs and winged pigs, 

 which now figured on every signet and every possible article of furni- 

 ture in the house, from the hall-chairs to the buckets used in the stable- 

 yard. One of his sons had been his school-fellow : so far from being in 

 any way his superior, he had ranked far beneath him in attainments, 

 and was flogged once a week for never washing his face. The reflection 

 on the change produced in their relative situations was of such constant 

 and irritating recurrence, that the pleasure of his visit was wholly anni- 

 hilated, and as soon as he conveniently could, he made some pretext for 

 returning home. 



He resumed the duties of his business, but the smell of malt disgusted 

 him. The workmen, whom he had once respected as industrious or 

 clever servants, seemed to him perfect caricatures of humanity ; and the 

 huge tubs, which had excited his pride by their immensity, looked so 

 insupportably hideous, that he almost wished they might burst. A 

 country brewer ! that phrase comprised all that was odious. Had he 

 been a London brewer, the case would have been completely changed, 

 for then he might have had no more to do with brewing than with 

 astrology, and, at the expense of having his name gibbeted in capitals 

 all over the city, followed by the mysterious word Entire, he might 

 have enjoyed an ample income, and sat, with booksellers and linendrapers, 

 an ornament to the senate of his country. 



He concluded, therefore, that the principal difference in human con- 

 ditions depended on living in, or out of, the metropolis ; and he began 

 to consider, whether it was not competent to him to attain all the advan- 

 tages it could confer, and become, like Mr. James-James, the founder of 

 a polite, wealthy, and ancient family. As the idea began to unfold 

 itself, its attractions increased, and he ventured, at length, to communi- 

 cate his views to Mr. Johnson, who called him a fool, and strove to con- 

 vince him that he was one ; but, failing in the argument, and hoping 

 that love might have more influence than reason, he sent him on a visit 

 to Miss Juliet Manning. 



All families have their distinctive foibles, and the reigning one of the 



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