s of his decided
disapprobation; resembling, in this particular, all the great and good
men who have ever existed, who have invariably maintained this opinion
so long as they have been in the minority.

Popanilla appeared once more in the world.

"Dear me! is that you, Pop?" exclaimed the ladies. "What have you been
doing with yourself all this time? Travelling, I suppose. Everyone
travels now. Really you travelled men get quite bores. And where did
you get that coat, if it be a coat?"

Such was the style in which the Fantasian females saluted the
long-absent Popanilla; and really, when a man shuts himself up from the
world for a considerable time, and fancies that in condescending to
re-enter it he has surely the right to expect the homage due to a
superior being, the salutations are awkward. The ladies of England
peculiarly excel in this species of annihilation; and while they
continue to drown puppies, as they daily do, in a sea of sarcasm, I
think no true Englishman will hesitate one moment in giving them the
preference for tact and manner over all the vivacious French, all the
self-possessing Italian, and all the tolerant German women. This is a
clap-trap, and I have no doubt will sell the book.

Popanilla, however, had not re-entered society with the intention of
subsiding into a nonentity, and he therefore took the opportunity, a
few minutes after sunset, just as his companions were falling into the
dance, to beg the favour of being allowed to address his sovereign only
for one single moment.

"Sire!" said he, in that mild tone of subdued superciliousness with
which we should always address kings, and which, while it vindicates
our dignity, satisfactorily proves that we are above the vulgar passion
of envy. "Sire!" But let us not encourage that fatal faculty of oratory
so dangerous to free states, and therefore let us give the "substance
of Popanilla's speech".[233] He commenced his address in a manner
somewhat resembling the initial observations of those pleasing
pamphlets which are the fashion of the present hour, and which, being
intended to diffuse information among those who have not enjoyed the
opportunity and advantages of study, and are consequently of a gay and
cheerful disposition, treat of light subjects in a light and polished
style. Popanilla, therefore, spoke of man in a savage state, the origin
of society, and the elements of the social compact, in sentences which
would not have disgraced the