Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To The Editor Of The Freemasons' Magazine.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE .
SIR , I HAVE read in Tavernier , or some other traveller , of an English merchant Who was cured of an inveterate gout by a severe bastinado , prescribed by a Turkish Chiatts in his return to Constantinople with the head of an unfortunate Bashaw . It was , doubtless , a severe remecty , and not veryeasily administered ; but ' it proved so effectual , that the
patient never failed , during the remainder of his life , to drink every day to the health of his Mussulman physician . Though I never underwent such painful application , I myself have been cured of a bad habit by a very unpalatable medicine ; to use the phrase of Shakspeare , a certain person gave me the bastinado with his tongue . You must know I am a middle-aged man in good ciicumstaucesj
, arising from the profits of a creditable profession , which I have exercised for many years with equal industry and circumspection . At the age of 26 I married the . daughter of an eminent apothecary , with whom I received a comfortable addition to my fortune . The honeymoon was scarce over , when we mutuall y found ourselves mismatched : She had been educated in notions of leasureand I had
p ; flattered myself that she would be contented with domestic enjoyments , and place among that number the care of her family : for my own part I had been used to relax myself in the evening from the fatigues of the day , among a club of honest nei ghbours who had ' been long acquainted with one another . The conversation was sometimes
enlivened by quaint sallies and sly repartees ; but politics formed the great topic by which our attention was attracted like the needle by the pole ; on this subject I had the vanity to think I was looked upon as a kind of oracle b y the society . I had carefully perused the Universal History , together with the Political State of ' Europe , and pored over maps until 1 knew , ad unguem , the situation of all the capital cities in
Christendom . This branch of learning was of great consequence to the members of our club , who were generally so little acquainted with geography , that I have known them mistake the Danube for a river of" Asia , and Turin for the metropolis of Tuscany . 1 acquired some reputation by describing the course of the Ohio in the beginning of" our American troubles ; and I filled the whole club with astonishment b
y setting to ri ghts one . of the members who talked of crossing the sea to Scotland . During a suspension of foreign intelligence , we sported in puns , conundrums , ancl merry conceits ; we would venture to be inoffensively waggish in bantering each other ; we sometimes retailed extempore witticisms , which between friends we had studied through the day ; and we indulged one or two jseniof members in their propensity to record the adventures of their youth . In a word , we constituted one of the most peaceful 2 nd best affected communities in this great metropolis .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To The Editor Of The Freemasons' Magazine.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE .
SIR , I HAVE read in Tavernier , or some other traveller , of an English merchant Who was cured of an inveterate gout by a severe bastinado , prescribed by a Turkish Chiatts in his return to Constantinople with the head of an unfortunate Bashaw . It was , doubtless , a severe remecty , and not veryeasily administered ; but ' it proved so effectual , that the
patient never failed , during the remainder of his life , to drink every day to the health of his Mussulman physician . Though I never underwent such painful application , I myself have been cured of a bad habit by a very unpalatable medicine ; to use the phrase of Shakspeare , a certain person gave me the bastinado with his tongue . You must know I am a middle-aged man in good ciicumstaucesj
, arising from the profits of a creditable profession , which I have exercised for many years with equal industry and circumspection . At the age of 26 I married the . daughter of an eminent apothecary , with whom I received a comfortable addition to my fortune . The honeymoon was scarce over , when we mutuall y found ourselves mismatched : She had been educated in notions of leasureand I had
p ; flattered myself that she would be contented with domestic enjoyments , and place among that number the care of her family : for my own part I had been used to relax myself in the evening from the fatigues of the day , among a club of honest nei ghbours who had ' been long acquainted with one another . The conversation was sometimes
enlivened by quaint sallies and sly repartees ; but politics formed the great topic by which our attention was attracted like the needle by the pole ; on this subject I had the vanity to think I was looked upon as a kind of oracle b y the society . I had carefully perused the Universal History , together with the Political State of ' Europe , and pored over maps until 1 knew , ad unguem , the situation of all the capital cities in
Christendom . This branch of learning was of great consequence to the members of our club , who were generally so little acquainted with geography , that I have known them mistake the Danube for a river of" Asia , and Turin for the metropolis of Tuscany . 1 acquired some reputation by describing the course of the Ohio in the beginning of" our American troubles ; and I filled the whole club with astonishment b
y setting to ri ghts one . of the members who talked of crossing the sea to Scotland . During a suspension of foreign intelligence , we sported in puns , conundrums , ancl merry conceits ; we would venture to be inoffensively waggish in bantering each other ; we sometimes retailed extempore witticisms , which between friends we had studied through the day ; and we indulged one or two jseniof members in their propensity to record the adventures of their youth . In a word , we constituted one of the most peaceful 2 nd best affected communities in this great metropolis .