l-boys, or rather
school-girls in England (for our boys are soon above such stuff), they
were never tired of this dull buffoonery, and kept us listening to it
till one o'clock in the morning.

Pleasure, when it does come, always bursts up in an unexpected place; I
derived much from observing in the faces of these cheerful friars, that
intelligent shrewdness and arch penetration so visible in the
countenances of our Welch farmers, and curates of country villages in
Flintshire, Caernarvonshire, &c. which Howel (best judge in such a case)
observes in his Letters, and learnedly accounts for; but which I had
wholly forgotten till the monks of St. Victor brought it back to my
remembrance.

The brothers who remained unemployed, and clear from stage occupations,
formed the orchestra; those that were left _then_ without any immediate
business upon their hands, chatted gaily with the company, producing
plenty of refreshments; and I was really very angry with myself for
feeling so cynically disposed, when every thing possible was done to
please me. Can one help however sighing, to think that the monastic
life, so capable of being used for the noblest purposes, and originally
suggested by the purest motives, should, from the vast diversity of
orders, the increase of wealth and general corruption of mankind,
degenerate into a state either of mental apathy, as among the
sequestered monks, or of vicious luxury, as among the more free and open
societies?

Yet must one still behold both with regret and indignation, that rage
for innovation which delights to throw down places once the retreats of
Piety and Learning--Piety, who fought in vain to wall and fortify
herself against those seductions which since have sapped the venerable
fabric that they feared to batter; and Learning, who first opened the
eyes of men, that now ungratefully begin to turn them only on the
defeats of their benefactress.

The Christmas functions here were showy, and I thought well-contrived;
the public ones are what I speak of: but I was present lately at a
private merrymaking, where all distinctions seemed pleasingly thrown
down by a spirit of innocent gaiety. The Marquis's daughter mingled in
country-dances with the apothecary's prentice, while her truly noble
parents looked on with generous pleasure, and encouraged the mirth of
the moment. Priests, ladies, gentlemen of the very first quality, romped
with the girls of the house in high good-humour, and trip