siness.

"Tush!" quoth my visiter; "and how did you leave the Doctor?"

"It is you, then!" said I; "you have grown greatly since you left Don
Cleofas."

"Wars fatten our tribe," answered the Devil; "besides shapes are optional
with me, and in England men go by appearances more than they do abroad;
one is forced to look respectable and portly; the Devil himself could not
cheat your countrymen with a shabby exterior. Doubtless you observe that
all the swindlers, whose adventures enliven your journals, are dressed 'in
the height of fashion,' and enjoy 'a mild prepossessing demeanour.' Even
the Cholera does not menace 'a gentleman of the better ranks;' and no
bodies are burked with a decent suit of clothes on their backs. Wealth in
all countries is the highest possible morality; but you carry the doctrine
to so great an excess, that you scarcely suffer the poor man to exist at
all. If he take a walk in the country, there's the Vagrant Act; and if he
has not a penny to hire a cellar in town, he's snapped up by a Burker, and
sent off to the surgeons in a sack. It must be owned that no country
affords such warnings to the spendthrift. You are one great moral against
the getting rid of one's money."

On this, Asmodeus and myself had a long conversation; it ended in our
dining together, (for I found him a social fellow, and fond of a broil in
a quiet way,) and adjourning in excellent spirits, to the theatre.

"Certainly," said the Devil, taking a pinch of snuff, "certainly, your
drama is wonderfully fine, it is worthy of a civilized nation; formerly
you were contented with choosing actors among human kind, but what an
improvement to go among the brute creation! think what a fine idea to have
a whole play turn upon the appearance of a broken-backed lion! And so you
are going to raise the drama by setting up a club; that's another
exquisite notion! You hire a great house in the neighbourhood of the
theatre; you call it the Garrick Club. You allow actors and patrons to mix
themselves and their negus there after the play; and this you call a
design for exalting the drama. Certainly you English are a droll set; your
expedients are admirable."

"My good Devil, any thing that brings actors and spectators together, that
creates an _esprit de corps_ among all who cherish the drama, is not to be
sneered at in that inconsiderate manner."

"I sneer! you mistake me; you have adduced a most convincing
argument--_esprit de corps_!--good