30 



ic of Venus,*' nor to enlarge on the size of the 

 breasts, *"even in this pious age of societies 

 S( for suppressing vice and the distributing 

 ".bibles;" nor to discourse on certain other 

 facts in the same page, " relating to an inte- 

 <c resting point in natural history. " Indeed, 

 Sir, as I am not a surgical professor, I cannot 

 pretend to follow you through your various suc- 

 ceeding details; but I remember something in 

 Juvenal of the "maxima debetur puero reveren-. 

 " tia" which I think might have excused your 

 account in page 419, and might have saved you 

 the trouble of copying certain lascivious notes 

 from Warton's Theocritus ! f 



The very nature of these particulars forbids 

 my adducing such passages at length. I will 

 pot, for the sake of becoming more perspicuous, 

 raise a blush on the cheek of modesty, or afford 

 a single jest and gratification to the profligate. 

 If you read the character of Gibbon, as drawn 

 by Mr. Porson, in his Letters to Travis, you 

 will have some faint conception of the con- 

 nexion of infidelity with these licentious descrip- 

 tions. In the mean time, Sir, I would refer it to 

 your sense of decorum and propriety, whether 

 you should lend your office to awakening any 

 of those emotions which are too apt to arise on 

 this subject, and whether, considering the na- 

 tural opportunities and tendencies of your pro- 

 fession, you should not be particularly delicate, 



* P. 419. f P. 293. 



