il
I can afford to purchase another horse, I spend my time in sauntering
from one club to another, passing many rather listless hours in them
before the men come in.

You will say, Why not take to backgammon, or ecarte, or amuse yourself
with a book? Sir (putting out of the question the fact that I do not
play upon credit), I make a point never to play before candles are
lighted; and as for books, I must candidly confess to you I am not a
reading man.

'Twas but the other day that some one recommended me to your Magazine
after dinner, saying it contained an exceedingly witty article upon--I
forget what. I give you my honor, sir, that I took up the work at six,
meaning to amuse myself till seven, when Lord Trumpington's dinner was
to come off, and egad! in two minutes I fell asleep, and never woke till
midnight. Nobody ever thought of looking for me in the library, where
nobody ever goes; and so ravenously hungry was I, that I was obliged to
walk off to Crockford's for supper.

What is it that makes you literary persons so stupid? I have met various
individuals in society who I was told were writers of books, and that
sort of thing, and expecting rather to be amused by their conversation,
have invariably found them dull to a degree, and as for information,
without a particle of it. Sir, I actually asked one of these fellows,
"What was the nick to seven?" and he stared in my face and said he
didn't know. He was hugely over-dressed in satin, rings, chains and
so forth; and at the beginning of dinner was disposed to be rather
talkative and pert; but my little sally silenced HIM, I promise you,
and got up a good laugh at his expense too. "Leave George alone,"
said little Lord Cinqbars, "I warrant he'll be a match for any of
you literary fellows." Cinqbars is no great wiseacre; but, indeed, it
requires no great wiseacre to know THAT.

What is the simple deduction to be drawn from this truth? Why,
this--that a man to be amusing and well-informed, has no need of
books at all, and had much better go to the world and to men for his
knowledge. There was Ulysses, now, the Greek fellow engaged in the
Trojan war, as I dare say you know; well, he was the cleverest man
possible, and how? From having seen men and cities, their manners noted
and their realms surveyed, to be sure. So have I. I have been in every
capital, and can order a dinner in every language in Europe.

My notion, then, is this. I have a great deal of spare time