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336 _ TRAVELS
labour. His wite was making their bread, and had heated the
oven to bake it; the bread contained fo much ftraw, and fo little
meal, that in order to make the dough adhere, fhe was obliged to
ufe a wooden frame, fuch as is employed in making cheefe. He
had neither field, nor. cow, butter, milk, nor animal food, and was
exifting in the moft deplorable condition. I confefs the prefence
of thofe doric pillars, contrafted with fo much poverty and mifery,
irritated my feelings to fuch a degree, that I fhould not have been
forry to fee them a heap of ruins. To what purpofe this paro-
chial magnificence, while the parifhioners themfelves remain in a
{tate of ftarvation! ‘ Down,” faid I within myfelf, « down with
the pillars, cupola, and temple; give again to thefe poor wretches
their wonted humble place of devotion, and inftead of wafting
treafure on idle fhow, beftow it in cultivating the foil and giving
them fubfiftence.”’ . 7
Nothing in fociety can be the fource of more melancholy tova
feeling mind, than a quick and violent contraft of extreme poverty
and luxury. I remember to have experienced fimilar mournful
reflections on the inequalities among men in the courfe of my
travels through the Britifh dominions. It was in Ireland, where,
happening to be with a hunting party, I perceived a hut formed
from a dunghill; on looking within, I faw naked children fleeping
without any fort of covering for their bodies, with their father, their
mother, and with hogs: and what fupported this miferable hovel?
A wall of ten feet high, which furrounded “ his honour’s” park.
With regard to the poor Finlander, of whom I have been fpeak-
ing,
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