LETTER LIII. 



MAN IHS MONARCH OF CREATION — TBE VIOLET AND ITS PROPRIETORS. 



Man pretends to be the king ot all nature. When I look at 

 things closely, this monarch, so vain of his power, appears to 

 me to have a singular resemblance to certain bishops, styled 

 in partibus infidelium — that is to say, whose bishoprics, in the 

 power of infidels, are so situated, that if chance should offer 

 them an opportunity of appearing in them, they could not 

 avoid being broiled, hung, quartered, or impaled. 



I do not here speak of animals, who, if man ventures too 

 near to their den, eagerly avail themselves of the opportunity 

 of regaling upon a monarch raw, or in his own gravy. 



I mean the innocent pretenders, who share with man the 



