CHAP. VII.1 POTATOES^ 285 



. 



by which it is pretended he was made to be 

 lieve, that he had actually fallen from the top 

 of the cliff! How they must be delighted to 

 seethe stage filled with green boughs, like a 

 coppice, as in Macbeth, or streaming like a 

 slaughter-house, as in Titus Andronicus ! How 

 the young girls in America must be tickled 

 with delight at the dialogues in Troilus and 

 Cressida, and more especially at the pretty ob 

 servations of the Nurse, I think it is, in Romeo 

 and Juliet! But, it is the same all through the 

 work. I know of one other, and only one other, 

 book, so obscene as this ; arid, if I were to judge 

 from the high favour in which these two books 

 seem to stand, [ should conclude, that wild and 

 improbable fiction, bad principles of morality 

 and politicks, obscurity in meaning, bombas- 

 tical language, forced jokes, puns, and smut, 

 were fitted to the minds of the people. But I 

 do not thus judge. It is fashion. These books 

 are in fashion. Every one is ashamed not to 

 be in the fashion. It is the fashion to extol 

 potatoes, and to eat potatoes. Every one joins 

 in extolling potatoes, and all the world like 

 potatoes, or pretend to like them, which is the 

 same thing in effect. 



272. In those memorable years of wisdom, 

 1800 and 1801, you can remember, I dare say, 

 the grave discussions in Parliament about pota- 



