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it within the influence of this general plan of refinement, and to give it an elegance and brilliancy, that may serve to spare our sensibilities, and substitute surprize in the place of feeling. A poor family will starve three children, to bury one; and no man can afford to die without a thousand pounds to his fortune. I could not help being much entertained a few days ago with an advertisement in a news-paper, in which a very sombre topic had borrowed the colours of this general characteristic refinement.

"JAMES MADDOX, at the Sugar-Loaf and Coffin, "respectfully solicits the patronage of the living and "the dead, who have had experience of his delicacy, "despatch, and punctuality. He furnishes skeletons in the best taste, of all sizes, of both colours,

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and of both sexes, accurately articulated; he "packs them safe, either for sea or land carriage: "he also mounts for those gentlemen who have "loose sets of bones; and ladies may depend upon "their orders being obeyed with the utmost regu

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larity. M- has discovered a most elegant me"thod of securing any human corpse above ground "from ill odours, and all manner of annoyance, with"out embowelling or embalming; while a certain "hitherto-undiscovered balsam in his possession "will preserve the finest glow of health upon the "face of the deceased. This is he who took up the "Dutch corpse in Painswick, after thirteen months' "interment, and so set him up by his elegant preparations, that he was able to bear, without in"convenience, the journey to Rotterdam. Among "other excellencies, he has an ointment which cures people of condition, and communicates present 66 ease, in an hour and a half. He has also coffins ready made for the accommodation of his friends,

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But this spir.: to the little 1. confines of re province of lit of books we fi Courtship, the Eternity, the i fumes of Grace recommended cal, and eleg; · racter, which air of buffoone. guor in the novelty, loc: timent, has r: parts of poe ners, the ma reign of ch have arisen. the hour, si anecdotes tain till it.

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it within the influence of this general plan of refinement, and to give it an elegance and brilliancy, that may serve to spare our sensibilities, and substitute surprize in the place of feeling. A poor family will starve three children, to bury one; and no man can afford to die without a thousand pounds to his fortune. I could not help being much entertained a few days ago with an advertisement in a news-paper, in which a very sombre topic had borrowed the colours of this general characteristic refinement.

"JAMES MADDOX, at the Sugar-Loaf and Coffin, "respectfully solicits the patronage of the living and "the dead, who have had experience of his delicacy, "despatch, and punctuality. He furnishes skele"tons in the best taste, of all sizes, of both colours, "and of both sexes, accurately articulated; he

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packs them safe, either for sea or land carriage: "he also mounts for those gentlemen who have "loose sets of bones; and ladies may depend upon "their orders being obeyed with the utmost regu

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larity. Mhas discovered a most elegant me"thod of securing any human corpse above ground "from ill odours, and all manner of annoyance, with"out embowelling or embalming; while a certain "hitherto undiscovered balsam in his possession "will preserve the finest glow of health upon the "face of the deceased. This is he who took up the "Dutch corpse in Painswick, after thirteen months' "interment, and so set him up by his elegant preparations, that he was able to bear, without in"convenience, the journey to Rotterdam. Among "other excellencies, he has an ointment which cures people of condition, and communicates present 66 ease, in an hour and a half. He has also coffins ready made for the accommodation of his friends,

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"furnished with every convenience; a circumstance "he has a peculiar pleasure in announcing to the "public, and the deceased in particular, as, for "want of such coffins, persons of quality have been "much incommoded."

Under the spreading influence of this whimsical delicacy, the commonest terms and phrases are shifting their dress, and strutting in fantastic finery. No man eats with you, on a public occasion, but assists at your dinner; and the butcher, who helps to provides you, is now a purveyor of meat; while your poulterer is gradually rising to the Turkey merchant.

But this spirit of refinement does not confine itself to the little moralities of life, but plays about the confines of religion, and stretches over the whole province of literature and taste. In our catalogues of books we find the Flowers of Infidelity, Religious Courtship, the Gentleman's Religion, the Dance to Eternity, the Box of Precious Ointment, the Perfumes of Grace, and Voltaire's Philosophical Works, recommended in the same line, as being very deistical, and elegantly bound. This effeminacy of character, which in the high concerns of religion has the air of buffoonery, produces a sad debility and languor in the objects of taste. A sickly thirst for novelty, local allusion, puerile point, and puny sentiment, has banished from the stage all the higher parts of poetry. The great display of general manners, the manly strokes of antique colouring, and the reign of character is gone for ever; in their place have arisen a train of fleeting topics of the day and the hour, such as the fungous growth of news-paper anecdotes supplies. A piece of news is hardly certain till it is confirmed at one of our playhouses; and

finds its way to the Theatre Royal before it can reach the Royal Exchange.

In what relates to style and composition, this effeminacy of taste is still predominant: a proud march of words without meaning, the trappings of sense without the substance, the features of fine writing without the soul, constitute a great part of the excellence of modern composition; and when we sit down with glowing expectation to one of the magnificent pages of modern printing, we fare like the famished porter at the table of the Barmicide in the Arabian story; except that he took his leave at last, completely rewarded for his patience and good-humour.

I cannot finish, without confessing my envy of the modern reader, who, like the Astomi, or people without mouths-that Indian nation of whom Pliny tells us that they lived upon the smell of meatscan also content himself with the ambrosia of language, without caring for any solider nourishment, or demanding that milky chyle of real knowledge which enriches and invigorates the soul.

No. 30. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1.

Sed, mehercule, mi Pœte, extra jocum, moneo te, quod pertinere ad beatè vivendum arbitror; ut cum viris bonis, jucundis, amantibus tui vivas. Nihil aptius vitæ, nihil ad beatè vivendum accommodatius. Nec id ad voluptatem refero: sed ad communitatem vitæ, atque victus, remissionemque animorum; quæ maximè sermone efficitur familiari, qui est in conviviis dulcissimus; ut sapientius nostri, quam Græci; illi ovμa aut avvdurva, id est compotationes, aut concænationes; nos convivia; quod tum maximè simul vivitur.

CICERO, EPIST. L. 9. 24.

But, indeed, my dear Poetus, jesting apart, I exhort you, for I know that it will conduce to your happiness, to court the

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