wledge absolute,
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost."

XV.--THE CLUB AT "THE TRUMPET."

Sheer Lane, February 10, 1710.

After having applied my mind with more than ordinary attention to
my studies, it is my usual custom to relax and unbend it in the
conversation of such as are rather easy than shining companions. This I
find particularly necessary for me before I retire, to rest, in order to
draw my slumbers upon me by degrees, and fall asleep insensibly. This is
the particular use I make of a set of heavy honest men, with whom I have
passed many hours with much indolence, though not with great pleasure.
Their conversation is a kind of preparative for sleep; it takes the
mind down from its abstractions, leads it into the familiar traces of
thought, and lulls it into that state of tranquillity, which is the
condition of a thinking man, when he is but half-awake. After this, my
reader will not be surprised to hear the account which I am about to
give of a club of my own contemporaries, among whom I pass two or three
hours every evening. This I look upon as taking my first nap before I go
to bed. The truth of it is, I should think myself unjust to posterity,
as well as to the society at "The Trumpet," of which I am a member, did
not I in some part of my writings give an account of the persons among
whom I have passed almost a sixth part of my time for these last forty
years. Our club consisted originally of fifteen; but, partly by the
severity of the law in arbitrary times, and partly by the natural
effects of old age, we are at present reduced to a third part of that
number: in which, however, we have this consolation that the best
company is said to consist of five persons. I must confess, besides the
aforementioned benefit which I meet with in the conversation of this
select society, I am not the less pleased with the company, in that I
find myself the greatest wit among them, and am heard as their oracle in
all points of learning and difficulty.

Sir Jeoffery Notch, who is the oldest of the club, has been in
possession of the right-hand chair time out of mind, and is the only man
among us that has the liberty of stirring the fire. This our foreman is
a gentleman of an ancient family, that came to a great estate some
years before he had discretion, and run it out in hounds, horses, and
cock-fighting; for which reason he looks upon himself as an honest,
worthy gentleman, who has had misfortunes i