A

suffered too great a degree of rarefaction. gentleman, making a precipitate retreat, on finding himself inflated, like a balloon, with a large dose of gas, or burnt air in him, tumbled over a card table, which (that no room might be lost) had been set upon a landing-place of the stairs. The party, with all the implements of trade, table, cards, candle, and counters, and the unfortunate person who had brought on the catastrophe, rolled down together. No farther mischief, however, was done; and two gentlemen of the party, as I have been well informed, found time to make a bet on the odd trick before they got to the bottom.

But these are trifling circumstances, and no more than may be expected to fall to the lot of humanity. I do not mention them, I am sure, as constituting any objection to a party, or as affording any reason why one should deprive one's-self of the pleasure one always has in seeing one's friends about one.

THE OLLA PODRIDA, No. 9, May 12, 1787.

No. CXVIII.

Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis

Manè salutantum totis vomit ædibus undam

At secura quies.

VIRGIL.

Though nor high domes, through all their portals wide,

Each morn disgorge the flatterers' refluent tide,
Yet peace is thine.

SOTHEBY.

I MADE an entrance, in my last paper, on the important subject of visiting, and distinguished the different kinds of visits now in vogue amongst us, with their excellencies and defects.

It is hard, indeed, to guess at the pleasure of assembling in very large parties. There is much heat, hurry, and fatigue, to all who are concerned. The essence of the entertainment seems to consist in a crowd, and none appear to be perfectly happy while they can stir hand or foot. At least, this is the case with the lady of the house, whose supreme felicity it is, to be kept in equilibrio by an equilateral pressure from all quarters. Fixed in her orb, like the sun of the system, she dispenses the favour of her nods and smiles on those bodies, which-I which I could say-move around her; but that they cannot do.

But though pleasure be not obtained, trouble, perhaps, it may be said, is saved, by receiving a multitude at once, instead of being subject to their perpetual incursions in separate bodies; and when the polite mob has been at my house I am at rest for some time.-True: but then there is a reciprocity; and as others have assisted in making your mob a decent and respectable one, you must do the same by them, and every evening will pass in this rondeau of delights; a vortex, out of which none can emerge, and into which more and more are continually drawn, for fear of being left in solitude; as all who wish to visit will very soon be obliged to visit after this method, or not at all. From the metropolis the fashion has made its way into provincial towns, all the visitable inhabitants of which will be assembled together at one house or other through the winter; and this, though perhaps there is not a single person among them, who does not dislike and complain of the custom, as absurd and disagreeable.

For the conduct of these visits no directions can be laid down; but concerning others (while any such shall remain) where a moderate company of neighbours meet, to pass a little time in conversation, some observations may be offered.

They are useful, and, indeed, necessary, to maintain a friendly and social intercourse, without which we are not in a capacity to give or receive help and assistance from each other.

They are useful to cheer and refresh the spirits after business, and may render us fitter to return to it again.

They are useful, when they are made with a view of relieving and comforting such as are afflicted or distressed; and that, not only in great and signal troubles, but the common cares and concerns of life; of advising, exhorting, and consoling such as, having weak and low spirits, are oppressed by anxiety and melancholy; of which in England the number always has been, and always will be, very considerable. Time is well employed in these and the like good offices, where a friend is the best physician. The very sight of a cheerful friend is often like the sun breaking forth in a cloudy day. A melancholy person is at least as much the object of charity as a sick one. The cheerful owe this duty to those who are otherwise; and enjoy, themselves, the most refined and exalted kind of pleasure, when they find their endeavours succeed.

Visits are useful, when they become the means of acquiring or communicating useful knowledge, relative to the conduct of life, in

concerns either personal or domestic; or, even when no such knowledge is obtained, if by innocent mirth, pleasant tales, &c. people are brought into good humour, and kept in it. No recreation is more truly serviceable and effectual than this and it is said of Archbishop Williams, that, "the greater the performance he was about to undertake (whether a speech, a sermon, or a debate), the more liberty and recreation he first took, to quicken and open his spirits, and to clear his thoughts."

By visiting, opportunities are offered of introducing, occasionally, matters literary and religious, new publications, &c. For though, perhaps, this is not so often done as it might be, when people meet; yet it cannot be done at all, unless people do meet.

To render visits lively and agreeable, where the company is small, and it can be managed conveniently, the conversation should be general. The ladies, by their sprightliness, should animate the gentlemen; and the gentlemen, by their learning, inform the ladies. Instead of this, the gentlemen too often lay their heads together, on one side of the room, and talk on subjects of literature or politics; leaving the ladies to settle the articles of caps and gowns, blonds and gawzes, on the other; which is hardly fair, espe