RISE OF NEW LEARNED SOCIETIES 263 



" I must beg on any terms to exculpate myself from all 

 idea of my having ever considered the amusements of the 

 great world as frivolous. I respect, I assure you, Sir, the 

 recreations of the public, and look up to those who direct 

 them with taste and with judgment. I see no objection 

 to a room being occupied on one day by a Society of 

 Philosophers, and on the next day a company of masquer- 

 aders ; and the less so as it will probably on both occasions 

 be frequented by the same persons. I was myself an 

 attendant on plays, operas, concerts, masquerades, etc., 

 till prevented by infirmities ; and was my health now 

 restored to me I should again be partaker, in the decline of 

 life, of those gaieties which added so much pleasure 

 to the commencement of it. 



" I am sorry I cannot accept your obliging invitation 

 to dine on the 28th, as I shall then be in the country. 

 But this is of no moment, and I know myself too well to 

 suppose myself a proper member of a Society for Belles 

 Lettres. I am scarce able to write my own language with 

 correctness, and never presumed to attempt elegant 

 composition, either in verse or in prose, in that or in any 

 other tongue. It is fitting, therefore, that I continue to 

 confine myself, as I have hitherto done, to the dry 

 pursuits of Natural History, etc." 



In the case which may now be mentioned, there is still 

 another trace of Banks's unwillingness to venture on 

 matters to which he was wholly unaccustomed. The 

 reasons given for his decision are sound enough, but one 

 cannot doubt the existence of a sense that he was un- 

 equal to the post of a Judicial Inquirer. Two gentlemen 

 wanted the assistance of some person who would act as 

 Arbitrator, and sent word to Banks asking him to under- 

 take it. The reply is what might be expected from one 

 who was beginning to feel the excessive burdens of life. 



