on,--had not yet made sufficient progress.
Even Johnson, in his "London," has two or three passages which cannot
be read aloud, and Addison's "Drummer" some indelicate allusions.

The expression of Mr. Bowles, "his consciousness of physical defect,"
is not very clear. It may mean deformity or debility. If it alludes
to Pope's deformity, it has been attempted to be shown that this was
no insuperable objection to his being beloved. If it alludes to
debility, as a consequence of Pope's peculiar conformation, I believe
that it is a physical and known fact that hump-backed persons are of
strong and vigorous passions. Several years ago, at Mr. Angelo's
fencing rooms, when I was a pupil of him and of Mr. Jackson, who had
the use of his rooms in Albany on the alternate days, I recollect a
gentleman named B--ll--gh--t, remarkable for his strength, and the
fineness of his figure. His skill was not inferior, for he could
stand up to the great Captain Barclay himself, with the muffles
on;--a task neither easy nor agreeable to a pugilistic aspirant. As
the by-standers were one day admiring his athletic proportions, he
remarked to us, that he had five brothers as tall and strong as
himself, and that their _father and mother were both crooked, and of
very small stature_;--I think he said, neither of them five feet
high. It would not be difficult to adduce similar instances; but I
abstain, because the subject is hardly refined enough for this
immaculate period, this moral millenium of expurgated editions in
books, manners, and royal trials of divorce.

This laudable delicacy--this crying-out elegance of the day--reminds
me of a little circumstance which occurred when I was about eighteen
years of age. There was then (and there may be still) a famous French
"entremetteuse," who assisted young gentlemen in their youthful
pastimes. We had been acquainted for some time, when something
occurred in her line of business more than ordinary, and the refusal
was offered to me (and doubtless to many others), probably because I
was in cash at the moment, having taken up a decent sum from the
Jews, and not having spent much above half of it. The adventure on
the tapis, it seems, required some caution and circumspection.
Whether my venerable friend doubted my politeness I cannot tell; but
she sent me a letter couched in such English as a short residence of
sixteen years in England had enabled her to acquire. After several
precepts and instructions