MONTHLY 
‘No. 64. - 

“MAGAZINE. 
‘OCTOBER 1.° 
[ No. .3.'of Vox. 10, 

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUNT of the PRESENT STATE of 
SOCIETY avd MANNERS in DUBLIN. 
OU afk for a fketch of the ftate of 
manners and fociety in the capital 
of Ireland. The capitals of all nations, 
like the heads of all individuals, beara ge- 
neral and ftriking refemblance. The man- 
ners of London, Dublin, Conftantinople, 
Pekin, and Paris, in their great features, 
have the fame fimilarity as the heads of the 
men who inhabit thole cities; and it is 
only a good political phyfiognomift who 
can mark the nicer difcriminations and 
peculiarities which diftinguifh one metro- 
polis:from another. Bodies of men com- 
mingled in large cities feel the fame wants, 
are animated with the fame paffions ; and 
the ftreets, the fquares, the lanes, and 
alleys of one great tewn are not more like 
thofe of another, than the qualities cha- 
racteriftic of, and common, to each me- 
tropolis. The real intereftednefs, and 
conftant mimicry of independence; the 
eternal bufinefS of every bofom, not to 
live in and by itfelf, but out of itfelf, and 
as others are fuppofed to live; the anxious 
forecaft and fpeculation that annihilates 
the prefent moment, and turns fociety into 
an univerfal and ghaftly hunt after an ever- 
flying future; the conftant retail or whole- 
fale traffic of morals for money ; the alter- 
nate bending from the uprightnefs of hu- 
man nature, from the backward bend of 
arrogance, to the forward bend of fer- 
vility; the jealous competition, the tor- 
menting comparifon; the extreme and mor- 
tal \abour of the lowelt clafs to live, the 
reftlefinefs of the middle claffes to live 
Juxurioufly, the corrofive exnui that preys 
inwardly and eats at the very core of ap- 
parently fair and florid luxury ; accumu- 
Jation unufed and unenjoyed, defperate 
poverty prowling for prey, unpitied di- 
ftrefs retiring to die, profufe improvi- 
dent and intermitting charity; genius, 
talte, and the fine arts flourifhing in bud, 
blofiom, and fruit, on the dung and com- 
pot of the capital; the fenfes all irritated 
and tantalized, the eyes dazzled by a conftant 
fucceffion of incongruous images, the 
ears wounded by a hubbub of difcordant 
founds ; the cdour-of impurities and per- 
fumes, the tafte overwhelmed and pailed 
with piesant diet; the picture, the poem, 
MoNnTH.. “*4G. No, 64. 
the dance, the fong, the chariot, the cart, 
the coffin, the fmoke, the din, the duft, 
and the ordure—Such is the common 
- character that diftinguifhes and contami- 
nates the centres of civilization. 
A great city is a great bath of animal 
magnetifm., Human nature, here, fuffers 
and finks under an excels of ftimulus. The 
fenfes, the paflions, the heads and the 
hearts of men are worn out by conftant, 
habitual irritation. There is a conftant 
alternation from a {well of artificial enjoy- 
ment tothe ebb of ennui ; for ennui, that 
benightedne/s of the mind, is the natural and 
neceffary confequence of inordinateftimulus. 
This is the thick moral atmofphere which 
envelopes a great city, like the fmoke and 
femi-darknefs that are feen ata diftance, 
and ‘ona nearer approach dim its luftre 
and foil its magnificence. The great art 
of hu{banding happinefs is not one of the 
city arts; and the tedium that occurs moft 
frequently in places and among perfons 
where it is leaft to be expected, gradually 
darkening from a difrelifh into a difguft of 
exiftence, and which from a fatiety of © 
life turns at length into an unnatural 
craving for felf-murder, is a difeafe moft 
frequently confequent upon the exceffive 
ftimulations fupplied to the fenfes, the 
appetites, and paffions by a luxurious city. 
The wretchednefs that hangs over and 
haunts the morning face of the gametter, 
the drunkard, the debauchee, zu/? be re- 
moved by the appropriate ftimulus of the 
night; or elfe (if courage fufhcient be 
left) they will at length long to medicine 
the evil of exiftence by the poifon or the 
piftol. Even the inordinate quantity of 
animal food, by giving rife to various ab- 
dominal complaints, particularly of the 
liver, may aft in ‘generating exnut, 
which is as mucha difeafe of the body as 
of the mind, and which, I believe, is a 
complaint common to all large cities, 
particularly to London. 
Whether, therefore, it belongs to the 
fubject or not, I muft repeat that the com- 
~ plaint of hypochondriacifm, the endemic 
of large cities, feems to be a confequence 
of inordinate ftimulus either of body or 
mind, and particularly the efteét of exce(s 
in diet, The frightful dream, the agita- 
tion and oppreffion of indigeftion, though 
forgotten in the day-time, leave a difa- 
greeable unaccountable impreffion on the 
Dd brain 
Coa 


