Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Letter II
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afraid at the expense of the other inhabitants, by
raising the price of the necessaries of life.
As all the men of consequence—I mean men of the
largest fortune—are merchants, their principal enjoyment
is a relaxation from business at the table, which
is spread at, I think, too early an hour (between one
and two) for men who have letters to write and accounts
to settle after paying due respect to the bottle.
However, when numerous circles are to be brought
together, and when neither literature nor public amusements
furnish topics for conversation, a good dinner
appears to be the only centre to rally round, especially
as scandal, the zest of more select parties, can only be
whispered. As for politics, I have seldom found it a
subject of continual discussion in a country town in
any part of the world. The politics of the place, being
on a smaller scale, suits better with the size of their
faculties; for, generally speaking, the sphere of
observation determines the extent of the mind.
The more I see of the world, the more I am convinced
that civilisation is a blessing not sufficiently
estimated by those who have not traced its progress;
for it not only refines our enjoyments, but produces a
variety which enables us to retain the primitive delicacy
of our sensations. Without the aid of the imagination
all the pleasures of the senses must sink into grossness,
unless continual novelty serve as a substitute for the
imagination, which, being impossible, it was to this
weariness, I suppose, that Solomon alluded when he
declared that there was nothing new under the
sun!—nothing for the common sensations excited by the
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