e imputation of pedantry, it
is what he would never improve by.

(_Polite Conversation_.)

JOSEPH ADDISON 1672-1719

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE

There is no place in the town which I so much love to frequent as the
Royal Exchange. It gives me a secret satisfaction, and in some measure
gratifies my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to see so rich an assembly
of countrymen and foreigners, consulting together upon the private
business of mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of _emporium_
for the whole earth. I must confess I look upon high-change to be a
great council, in which all considerable nations have their
representatives. Factors in the trading world are what ambassadors are
in the politic world; they negotiate affairs, conclude treaties, and
maintain a good correspondence between those wealthy societies of men
that are divided from one another by seas and oceans, or live on the
different extremities of a continent. I have often been pleased to
hear disputes adjusted between an inhabitant of Japan, and an alderman
of London, or to see a subject of the Great Mogul entering into a
league with one of the Czar of Muscovy. I am infinitely delighted in
mixing with these several ministers of commerce, as they are
distinguished by their different walks and different languages.
Sometimes I am jostled {57} among a body of Armenians; sometimes I am
lost in a crowd of Jews; and sometimes make one in a group of Dutchmen.
I am a Dane, Swede, or Frenchman at different times; or rather fancy
myself like the old philosopher, who upon being asked what countryman
he was, replied that he was a citizen of the world. . . .

Nature seems to have taken a particular care to disseminate her
blessings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to this
mutual intercourse and traffic among mankind, that the natives of the
several parts of the globe might have a kind of dependence upon one
another, and be united together by their common interest. Almost every
degree produces something peculiar to it. The food often grows in one
country, and the sauce in another. The fruits of Portugal are
corrected by the products of Barbadoes, and the infusion of a China
plant is sweetened with the pith of an Indian cane. The Philippic
islands give a flavour to our European bowls. The single dress of a
woman of quality is often the product of an hundred climates. The muff
and the fan come together from the different ends of the ear