n the town where _opium_ was sold, and even then, it was with greater,
he could prevail upon the vender of it to let him have above half an
ounce: if he were questioned, why all these precautions? he would tell
them, laughingly, that Englishmen believe _opium_ to be a deadly poison,
and those people suspected that he either meant to kill himself, or to
poison another man with it.

A French gentleman, who travelled some years since into Spain, had
letters of recommendation to a Spanish Bishop, who received him with
every mark of politeness, and treated him with much hospitality: soon
after he retired to his bedchamber, a priest entered it,[A] holding a
vessel in his hand, which was covered with a clean napkin; he said
something; but the Frenchman understanding but little Spanish,
intimated by signs his thanks, and desired him to put it down,
believing, that his friend, the Bishop, had sent him a plate of
sweetmeats, fruit, iced cream, or some kind of refreshment to eat before
he went to bed, or to refresh his exhausted spirits in the night; but
his astonishment was great indeed, when he found the priest put the
present under the side of the bed; and more so, when he perceived that
it was only a _pot de chambre_;--for, says the Frenchman, "in Spain,
they do not use the _chaise percee_!" The Frenchman is surprized at the
Spaniard, for not using so convenient a vehicle; the Englishman is
equally surprized, that the Frenchman does;--the Frenchman is always
attentive to his own person, and scarce ever appears but clean and well
dressed; while his house and private apartments are perhaps covered with
litter and dirt, and in the utmost confusion;--the Englishman, on the
other hand, often neglects his external dress; but his house is always
exquisitely clean, and every thing in it kept in the nicest order; and
who shall say, which of the two judge the best for their own ease and
happiness? I am sure the Frenchman will not give up his powdered hair,
and laced coat, for a clean house; nor do I believe those fineries would
sit quietly upon the back of an Englishman, in a dirty one. In short, my
dear sir, we must take the world, and the things in it, as they are; it
is a dirty world, but like France, has a vast number of good things in
it, and such as I meet with, in this my third tour, which shall be a
long one, if I am not _stopped_ by the way, you shall have such an
account of as I am able to convey to you: I will not attempt to _