356 MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND [PART II. 



they are not insincere enough to express 

 much. 



359. There is one thing in the Americans, 

 which, though its proper place was further 

 back, I have reserved, or rather kept lack, to 

 the last moment. It has presented itself several 

 times ; but 1 have turned from the thought, as 

 men do from thinking of any mortal disease 

 that is at work in their frame. It is not cove- 

 tousness ; it is not niggardliness ; it is not in 

 sincerity ; it is not enviousness ; it is not cow 

 ardice, above all things: it is DRINKING. 

 Aye, and that too, amongst but too many men, 

 who, one would think, would loath it. You 

 ran go into hardly any man's house, without 

 being asked to drink wine, or spirits, even in 

 the morning. They are quick at meals, are 

 little eaters, seem to care little about what they 

 eat, and never talk about it. This, which arises 

 out of the universal abundance of good and 

 even fine eatables, is very amiable. You are 

 here disgusted with none of those eaters by re 

 putation that are found, especially amongst the 

 Parsons, in England : fellows that unbutton at 

 it. Nor do the Americans sit and tope much 

 after dinner, and talk on till they get into non 

 sense and smut, which last is a sure mark of a 

 silly and, pretty generally, even of abase mind. 

 But, they tipple; and the infernal spirits they 



