'sumption, though the doctors say it is only a nervous 'atrophy.

'Will Sitfast is the best-natured fellow living, and an excellent companion, though he seldom speaks; 'but he is no flincher, and sits every man's hand out

at the club. He is a very good scholar, and can 'write very pretty Latin verses. I doubt he is in a 'declining way; for a paralytical stroke has lately 'twitched up one side of his mouth so, that he is now 'obliged to take his wine diagonally. However, he 'keeps up his spirits bravely, and never shams his glass.

6

'Doctor Carbuncle is an honest, jolly, merry parson, well affected to the government, and much of a 'gentleman. He is the life of our club, instead of 'being the least restraint upon it. He is an admirable scholar, and I really believe has all Horace by heart; 'I know he has him always in his pocket. His red 'face, inflamed nose, and swelled legs, make him 'generally thought a hard drinker by those who do 'not know him; but I must do him the justice to

say, that I never saw him disguised with liquor in

my life. It is true, he is a very large man, and

can hold a great deal, which makes the colonel call him, pleasantly enough, a vessel of election.

'The

The last and least,' concluded my friend, 'is your 'humble servant, such as I am; and if you please,

we will go and walk in the park till dinner time.' I agreed, and we set out together. But here the reader will perhaps expect that I should let him walk on a little, while I give his character. We were of the same year of St. John's College in Cambridge: he was a younger brother of a good family, was bred to the church, and had just got a fellowship in the college, when, his elder brother dying, he succeeded to an easy fortune, and resolved to make himself easy with it, that is, to do nothing. As he had resided long in college, he had contracted all the habits, prejudices, the laziness, the soaking, the pride, and the pedantry of the cloister, which after a certain time are never to be rubbed off. He considered the critical knowledge of the Greek and Latin words, as the utmost effort of the human understanding, and a glass of good wine in good company, as the highest pitch of human felicity. Accordingly, he passes his mornings in reading the classics, most of which he has long had by heart; and his evenings in drinking his glass of good wine, which by frequent filling, amounts at least to two, and often to three bottles a-day. I must not omit mentioning that my friend is tor

mented

mented with the stone, which misfortune he imputes to having once drank water for a month, by the prescription of the late Doctor Cheyne, and by no means to at least two quarts of claret a-day, for these last thirty years. To return to my friend-'I am very 'much mistaken,' said he, as we were walking in the park, if you do not thank me for procuring this day's 'entertainment: for a set of worthier gentlemen to be 'sure never lived.'-' I make no doubt of it,' said I, ' and am therefore the more concerned when I reflect, that this club of worthy gentlemen might, by your

own account, be not improperly called an hospital ' of incurables, as there is not one among them who 'does not labour under some chronical and mortal

distemper.'-'I see what you would be at,' answered my friend; 'you would insinuate that it is all owing 'to wine; but let me assure you, Mr. Fitz-Adam, 'that wine, especially claret, if neat and good, can hurt no man.' I did not reply to this aphorism of my friend's, which I knew would draw on too long a discussion, especially as we were just going into the clubroom, where I took it for granted, that it was one of the great constitutional principles. The account of this modern Symposion shall be the subject of my next paper.

[September 19, 1754-]

A

MY

what he thought the most obliging manner; but which I confess put me a little out of countenance. 'Give me leave, gentlemen,' said he, "to present to you my old friend, Mr. Fitz-Adam, the ' ingenious author of the World.' The word Author instantly excited the attention of the whole company, and drew all their eyes upon me: for people who are not apt to write themselves have a strange curiosity to see a Live Author. The gentlemen received me in common with those gestures that intimate welcome; and I on my part respectfully muttered some of those nothings,

nothings, which stand instead of the something one should say, and perhaps do full as well.

The weather being hot, the gentlemen were refreshing themselves before dinner with what they called a cool tankard; in which they successively drank to Me. When it came to my turn, I thought I could not decently decline drinking the gentlemen's healths, which I did aggregately: but how was I surprised, when, upon the first taste, I discovered that this cooling and refreshing draught was composed of the strongest mountain wine, lowered indeed with a very little lemon and water, but then heightened again by a quantity of those comfortable aromatics, nutmeg and ginger! Dinner, which had been called for more than once with some impatience, was at last brought up, upon the colonel's threatening perdition to the master and all the waiters of the house, if it was delayed two minutes longer. We sat down without ceremony; and we were no sooner sat down, than everybody (except myself) drank everybody's health, which made a tumultuous kind of noise. I observed, with surprise, that the common quantity of wine was put into glasses of an immense size and weight; but my surprise ceased, when I saw the tremulous hands that took them, and for which I supposed they were

intended