lemnity, that the public
swallowed the deceit, and bought up the whole impression. The wise
politicians of the metropolis declared they were both masterly
performances, and chuckled over the flimsy reveries of an ignorant
garreteer, as the profound speculations of a veteran statesman,
acquainted with all the secrets of the cabinet. The imposture was
detected in the sequel, and our Hibernian pamphleteer retains no
part of his assumed importance but the bare title of 'my lord', and
the upper part of the table at the potatoe-ordinary in Shoe Lane.

"Opposite to me sat a Piedmontese, who had obliged the public with a
humorous satire, entitled _The Balance of the English Poets_; a
performance which evinced the great modesty and taste of the author,
and, in particular, his intimacy with the elegances of the English
language. The sage, who laboured under the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, or 'horror of
green fields', had just finished a treatise on practical
agriculture, though, in fact, he had never seen corn growing in his
life, and was so ignorant of grain, that our entertainer, in the
face of the whole company, made him own that a plate of hominy was
the best rice-pudding he had ever eat.

"The stutterer had almost finished his travels through Europe and
part of Asia, without ever budging beyond the liberties of the
King's Bench, except in term-time, with a tipstaff for his
companion: and as for little Tim Cropdale, the most facetious member
of the whole society, he had happily wound up the catastrophe of a
virgin tragedy, from the exhibition of which no promised himself a
large fund of profit and reputation. Tim had made shift to live many
years by writing novels, at the rate of five pounds a volume; but
that branch of business is now engrossed by female authors, who
publish merely for the propagation of virtue, with so much ease, and
spirit, and delicacy, and knowledge of the human heart, and all in
the serene tranquillity of high life, that the reader is not only
enchanted by their genius, but reformed b