yield any water at all. I must own I have always
been an enemy to specifics which I thought inconsistent with the nature
of the animal economy; but certainly the authority of Solomon is not to
be questioned. I wonder where I shall find a glass retort large enough
to contain such a vast quantity of tinder, the consumption of which
must, undoubtedly, raise the price of paper, or where shall I find
animal heat sufficient even to warm such a mass?" Slyboot informed him,
that he might have a retort blown for him as big as a church: and, that
the easiest method of raising the vapour by animal heat, would be to
place it in the middle of an infirmary for feverish patients, who might
be upon mattresses around and in contact with it. He had he sooner
pronounced these words, than Wagtail exclaimed in a rapture, "An
admirable expedient, as I hope to be saved! I will positively put it in
practice."

This simplicity of the physician furnished excellent diversion for the
company, who, in their turns, sneered at him in ironical compliments,
which his vanity swallowed as the genuine sentiments of their hearts.
Mr. Chatter, impatient of so long a silence, now broke out and
entertained us with a catalogue of all the people who danced at the last
Hampstead assembly, with a most circumstantial account of the dress and
ornaments of each, from the lappets of the ladies to the shoe-buckles of
the men; concluding with telling Bragwell, that his mistress Melinda was
there, and seemed to miss him: and soliciting his company at the next
occasion of that kind.

"No, d--mm," said Bragwell, "I have something else to mind than dangling
after a parcel of giddy-headed girls; besides, you know my temper is
so unruly, that I am apt to involve myself in scrapes when a woman is
concerned. The last time I was there, I had an affair with Tom Trippit."
"Oh! I remember that!" cried Banter; "You lugged out before the ladies;
and I commend you for so doing, because you had an opportunity of
showing your manhood without running any risk." "Risk!" said the other
with a fierce countenance, "d--n my blood! I fear no risks. I an't afraid
of lugging out against any man that wears a head, d-me! 'Tis well known
that I have drawn blood more than once, and lost some too; but what
does that signify?" The player begged this champion to employ him as his
second the next time he intended to kill, for he wanted to see a man die
of a stab, that he might know how to act such an