y early period of life, for I could not be six years
old. I had been put into my bed in the nursery, and two
servant {p.140} girls sat down by the embers of the fire,
to have their own quiet chat, and the one began to tell a
most dismal ghost story, of which I remember the
commencement distinctly at this moment; but perceiving which
way the tale was tending, and though necessarily curious,
being at the same time conscious that, if I listened on, I
should be frightened out of my wits for the rest of the
night, I had the force to cover up my head in the
bed-clothes, so that I could not hear another word that was
said. The only inconvenience attending a similar prudential
line of conduct in the present case is, that it may seem
like a deficiency of spirit; but I am not much afraid of
that being laid to my charge--my fault in early life (I hope
long since corrected) having lain rather the other way. And
so I say, with mine honest Prior,--

"Sleep, Philo, untouch'd, on my peaceable shelf,
Nor take it amiss that so little I heed thee;
I've no malice at thee, and some love for myself--
Then why should I answer, since first I must read thee?"

[Footnote 56: _Twelfth Night_, Act II. Scene 3.]

So you are getting finely on in London. I own I am very glad
of it. I am glad the banditti act like banditti, because it
will make men of property look round them in time. This
country is very like the toys which folks buy for children,
and which, tumble them about in any way the urchins will,
are always brought to their feet again, by the lead
deposited in their extremities. The mass of property has the
same effect on our Constitution, and is a sort of ballast
which will always _right_ the vessel, to use a sailor's
phrase, and bring it to its due equipoise.

Ministers have acted most sillily in breaking up the burgher
volunteers in large towns. On the contrary, the service
should have been made coercive. Such men have a moral effect
upon the minds of the populace, besides their actual force,
and are so much interested in keeping good order, that you
may always rely on them, especially as a corps in which
there is necessarily a common {p.141} spirit of union and
confidence. But all this is nonsense again, quoth my Uncl