2.02 
brain during the waking hours. It is 
then called eznui, which indeed throws 
the darknefs of the night over the day. 
This blackens into hypochondriacifm, in- 
to fettled melancholy, into the derange- 
ment that believes itfelf about to ftarve in 
the midft of opulence and plenty, and a 
variety of other mental alienations, which 
influence the charaéter and the condu, the 
fpeculation and the practice of life, in all 
its leffer lunacies. ‘The morbid melan- 
choly of that carnivorous kraken of lite- 
rature and (what is called) good living, 
Dy. Johnfon, a man who had no fenfes, 
neither eyes, nor ears, nor tafte, nor {mell 
for the fimple charms of rural life; who, 
whatever might be his learning (much 
lefs than is generally f{uppofed) was, in 
his ftomach, a mere Sancho ; 47s long dif- 
eafe of life was, am convinced, in great 
meafure owing to the conftantly oppref- 
fed powers of digeftion. He was always 
haunted with the ghoft of the laft night’s 
dream, and he fled for refuge from habi- 
tual fits of repletion to the temporary eafe 
induced by the milder and le{s immoral 
intoxication of tea. I cannot help taking 
a view in fancy of this Aellyo of high ci- 
vilization, this favourable tun-belly type. 
‘and example of city life, lying on his 
breadth of back, ftarting, and half con- 
vulfed, under the incubus of his laft enor- 
‘mous meal, and then wakening with the 
groan of fearful, but indiftinét, recollec- 
- ticns—I cannot help comparing this fleep 
and this vigilance, to the ferene unruffled 
flumber of the Hindoo, the pure and pla- 
cid reft, whofe dreams are vifiting angels, 
leaving the brain in that ftate which feels 
happivefs in every exiftence, and fpreads 
a fmooth and uniform confcioufnefs of 
enjoyment over every hour of every day. 
The purgatory of Dr. Johnfon’s appetite 
tormented him even in his meditations 
end prayers, which are too often taken up 
with his fins -of repletion. But the in- 
cenfe of the Indian, the worfhip 4e pays 
the Creator, is the unutterable fenfation 
that arifes from the various organs and 
funétions of the frame, which, complicated 
as they are, unite in the fimple, {weeteft, 
moft hallowed, and beft rewarded virtue 
of the body, the happinefs or uniform 
HEALTH. His whole fyftem, as it were, 
vibrates with health, and harmony, and 
héppine(s, . 
“In fhort, I cannot think, that what I 
will venture to call the morality of good 
health can eafily be found or acquired in 
the midft of a city, where the impreffions 
made on the fenfes are harhh, irregular, 
Prefent State of Society and Manners in Dublin. [O&ober 1, 
turbulent, tumultuous; and where the 
ideas, generated and affociated with fuch 
fenfations, may produce occafional {pafms 
of pleafure, but mixed and alternating 
with the green and yellow melancholy of 
profeffional life. 
In Dublin extremes meet. Manners 
the moft favage with high civilizations 
But as the civilization, high as it is, like 
the countenance, has fomewhat of the yul- 
garity of the brogue; fo the favagery has 
no connection with the courageous, high 
fpirited, independent favagery of foul, 
contracted but ftrong in its attachments, 
in its enmities implacable and immortal, 
elevated by a confcioufnels of its own 
freedom, fuperior to the dread of danger 
and of death, fuch as enjoyed its carelefs 
and uncontrouled liberty in the forefts or 
wilds of America. ‘The favage of ihe citp 
is a much inferior animal: debafed and de= 
graded, borne down by the multiplied 
troubles and increafing labours of life, in- 
crufted with dirt, nourifhed only by the 
ftimulus of whifkey, his ears filled with ~ 
the cries of a miferable and morbid pro- 
geny, his eyes down-looking and dejected, 
he lives in a conftant tranfition from the 
fatigue of exorbitant labour, to the un= 
natural ftimulus of the worft intoxicating 
liquers, without Jaying by the fmalleft 
property for ficknefs or old age, and he 
dies an outcaft and a beggar. The nou- 
rifhment of the poor in Dublin is in ge- 
-neral fcanty and unwholefome, and even 
this voluntarily curtailed for an increafe 
to their quantity of ftrong liquor. The 
nourifhment of all the upper ranks is ex- 
ceflive ; and this inequality of diet, of rai- 
ment, of habitation, in different ranks, 
is the caufe, as well as the effect, of moft 
of the evils of civilized life. The com- 
munity, like the individual, is always 
either ina ftate of unnatural collapfe, or 
unnatural excitement ; of ftupid apathy, 
or infane infurgency ; in the depreffion 
that favours the rule of fuperftition, or in 
the mental intoxication that occafionally 
calls torth a ferocious enthufiafm, 
The poor of Ireland, and particularly 
of Dublin, are, of the human race, the 
pooreft and moft wretched. The man of 
power and opulence is fond of faying, 
with a crueltyof moral irony : § Look thro* 
all conditions, and you will fee a balance 
of enjoyment and fuffering, a compenfa- 
tion, an equality.” But let the miterable 
inmates pf the greater part of this city 
fay, if they think all conditions equal. The 
truth is, that reproach, ignominy, con- 
tempt, poverty, and perfecution have funk 
the 
