188 Maxims, by a middle-aged Gentleman. [August, 



wishes, in town and out of town, breed in me, who am easily pleased and 

 grateful withal, such serious reasons for content, that I envy not the man 

 who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and still be discontented. 



Vice. — Whatever disgusts us at first in vice is not so disagreeable as 

 it seems to be ; but, like the most nauseous medicines, goes down glibly 

 at last, though we make wry faces over it. Let us hear or see the thing 

 that disgusts us, twice or thrice, or oftener, and we shall find that there 

 is a closer affinity in our antipathy to it than we wot of j and that the 

 most coarse and ugly vice becomes 



" Fine by degrees and beautifully less." 



Pickpockets. — Every street, within a pretty wide cii'cle of a theatre, 

 has its own proper and peculiar pickpocket. I consider a genteel man 

 to be somewhat neglected if he be not, at the least, tried in his way to 

 either house : it is his own fault if he goes beyond this very pardonable 

 liberty. If one of these gentry succeed in lightening you of purse 

 or pocket-handkerchief, by all means let him go about his business — you 

 will find it the readiest mode of getting rid of him ; but if he only half 

 succeeds, and you are not anxious about hearing the overture or witness- 

 ing the opening scene, in this case have no mercy on him : clutch him 

 fast by the collar, and if he is of a convenient size, dedicate ten minutes 

 to shaking him — then let him go ; and you will find him sneak off, a per- 

 fectly well-satisfied scoundrel. This is all that is needful. I do not 

 wish to affect singularity, but I never suffer a pickpocket to be pumped 

 upon on my account. C. W. 



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