1792. letter from Arcticus. 23% 
particularly unfortunate when chance threw me in 
their way, as I was sure to find a blank that day in 
my note book. One of them, for example, would afk 
me, with a knowing look, if we had any horse races in 
our extensive plains, so well calculated for that a- 
musement? a second, if we had no species of dra- 
matic representation, as surely at least the song of 
the goat and village, the parents of the sock and bus-» 
kin, must have already been heard in the wilds of 
Scythia? a third, twirling in his hand a thief’s blud~ 
geon, in lieu of a walking stick, much too fhort and 
ugly for either support or ornament, would afk me, 
with that sort of archnefs peculiar to this clafs of. 
merry andrews, if none of the accomplifhed disciples 
of Aspasia, had as yet found their way to our hordes? 
To this last question I replied with all the simplicity 
of an unknowing traveller, That we had not as yet 
been so fortunate; thinking he meant some of the 
fellow scholars of Socrates and Pericles, who both 
studied in that elegant school; but a horse laugh, 
and certain significant winks and nods, soon discove-~ 
red to me that it was not the male, but the fémale 
disciples of the celebrated courtezan, that these hu- 
mane gentlemen wifhed amongst us. In fhort the 
same insipid round of wittling questions. were rz- 
peated by every detachment of this horde I. met 
with, (easily distinguifhed by their remarkable 
drefs,) as if only one and the same soul had animated 
the whole phalanx, and only three ideas had taken 
full pofsefsion of it, wiz. plays, horses, and har- 
lots. 
