and best of
sciences, notwithstanding all the quackery and self-delusion that I find
among the professors. I have now studied it and experimented upon it for
more than thirty years, and have no longer any misgivings upon the
subject, so far as the great leading principles are involved.

* * * * *

_Manners._--If we do not record our first impressions they soon
disappear; and the greatest novelties are overlooked or forgotten.
Already I begin to see women with heavily-laden wheel-barrows, without
surprise. I have now learned, I hope, that a postman's rap is _one_,
_two_, and no more; a servant's, _one_; while a footman gives from four
to twenty, as hard as he can bang, so as to startle the whole
neighborhood and make everybody run to the windows. Eating fish with a
knife said to be fatal. Great personages give you a finger to shake. I
did not know this when I took the forefinger of a cast-off mistress, the
original of Washington Irving's Lady Sillicraft, a painted and withered
old vixen, who meant to signify her liking for me, as I had reason to
believe. Moles are reckoned such a positive beauty here that my
attention has been called to them, as to fine eyes or a queenly bearing.
A _fine_ woman here means a large woman, tall, dignified, and showy,
like a fine horse or a fine bullock.

Never shall I forget the looks and tones of a bashful friend, in
describing his embarrassment. He was at Holkham, the seat of Mr. Coke,
our Revolutionary champion, who, being in Parliament at the time, moved,
session after session, the acknowledgment of our independence,--am I
right here?--and actually gave the health of George Washington at a
large dinner-party while the Revolutionary fires were raging. There was
a large company at dinner, but for his life my friend did not know what
to do with the ladies nor with his hands. Goes through room after room
to get his dinner; is called upon to serve a dish he has never seen
before, and knows not how to manage. Asked to take wine, and wants to
ask somebody else, but cannot recall the name of a single person within
reach, and whispers to the servant for relief, while his eye travels up
and down both sides of the long table; is reminded of the guest who said
to himself, loud enough to be overheard by the waiter behind his chair,
"I wish I had some bread," to which the waiter replied without moving,
"I wish you had." Durst not offer his arm to a lady, lest he shoul