56 



^th February^ 1893. 



Professor Fitzgerald, B.A., M.I.C.E., President, in 

 the Chair. 



"AN ARTIFICIAL AGE: PORT, THE PATRON, 

 AND THE PILLORY." 



By Mr. F. Frankfort Moore. 



The paper which I shall have the honour of oifering to your 

 notice this evening is a very desultory one. It will not aim at 

 instructing you on any particular point with that definiteness 

 and finality which mark a doctor's — a young doctor's— 

 diagnosis of an intricate case, but I hope that it may help you 

 to recall some agreeable pictures of which you may have 

 caught glimpses in the works of many writers for whom the 

 middle of the eighteenth century has had a certain fascination ; 

 I can only hope that it may bring back to your minds some of 

 the varied incidents connected with the social and artistic life 

 in England about that period. In many cases it is only 

 necessary that one should speak certain names to bring before 

 our eyes a series of exquisite pictures. When the name of 

 Addison is spoken there passes before us the stately retinue of 

 which Sir Roger de Coverley was the leader ; when we speak 

 of Sir Joshua Reynolds we stand in a moment in the centre of 

 a group of gracious women, every one of them having an air 

 of distinction, and men, every one of them with his character 

 impressed upon his features. Within the brief space at my 

 disposal it is only possible for me to speak in your hearing a 

 few of the names that must be for ever associated with the 

 art and literature of the period which may roughly be said to 



