others, by opening of themselves!-But, if you are fond of oysters, I'll give you enough of them : 49. (T.) Supping upon roasted oysters-with the snatching, and burning, and hissing, and grinning, and cluttering, that go with it-leaving you no comfort but in thinking of the moment, when all will be swept away, and the water glasses brought round. Sen. The following I forgot to introduce, among the delights of a dinner : 50. (S.) The purgatorial interval after you have all dined, and before the servants have taken every thing (particularly themselves) away, and finally shut the door.. Ned Tes. "Mixtis servitiis, et dissono clamore." (TAC.) Sen. Such are the three celebrated meals of man!-Here, then, we will wind up the "Miseries of eating and drinking "—unless a few other promiscuous griefs of the palate, not reducible to the above heads, should occur to either of us :-yes: 51. (S.) The infatuation of mumping your way through a large and very sour apple, though you are soon reduced to your fore-teeth (grinders hors de combat at the first craunch,) and would give your life that it were all well over. Tes. Why, this is Fluellen and Pistol all in one!-Fluel. " Pite, pite, I pray you!"— Pist. "Must I bite?"-Fluel. "Yes, certainly, and out of doubt, and out of questions, too, and ambiguities."-Pist." I eat, and eat, and swear!" 52. (S.) Cracking a hard nut with your teeth, and filling gap left by the grinder you have knocked out, with black bitter dust. the Tes. This is "worse than worst!"-more than even the demons themselves are able to bear : Chew'd bitter ashes, which th' offended taste MILT. 53. (T.) When parched with thirst, opening your last bottle of spruce beer, and finding it so very good, that it first washes your face and hands, and then your walls and furniture, with the whole of its contents. Sen. Nay, the contrary is quite as bad, viz. 54. (S.) At the instant of drawing the cork, starting back, from the eagerly expected burst of frothbut without the least occasion either for your hopes or fears the liquor all remaining in the bottle as quiet as a lamb. 55. (T.) After a frosty journey-preparing mulled wine for yourself and friends; then, after it has remained the proper time upon the fire, and just as you are taking it off, and all are rousing for the comfortable regale-seeing an avalanche of soot plump into the pot. 56. (S.) While you are swallowing a raspberry, discovering by its taste, that you have been so unhappy as to occasion the death of a harmless insect! 57. (T.) Your tongue coming in contact with the skin of a peach. Sen. Yes, or even the mind coming in contact with the idea! 58. (T.) Your sensations about the throat and chest, after having too hastily forced down a piece of very hard dry biscuit—just as if you were swallowing a nutmeg-grater three or four yards long. Tes. "The pleasures of the table !"-yesa sly ironical rogue was he that first hit upon that expression.-I fancy my dog Rover, there, if we could understand him, would give us a much better account of the pleasures under the table:-for there he gnaws his bone in comfort, without asking any questions about the cookery—and what is best of all, he is not considered as one of the company. Sen. No; he, as you say, modestly keeps his hunger in the back ground; while we cannot obey this coarse necessity, without assembling from all quarters, to see each other first go through the vile operation, and then rince and scour away its effects-nay, without telling the rest of the county, by sound of bell, what a delicate scene is going on in the diningroom! Tes. Aye-this is one of the blessings of having what they call " a good house over one's head!" Sen. Yes;-one, as you say;-but it is only one out of a million: there are other rooms in a house besides the dining-room, you know -which leads me, by the bye, to propose these as the next subject of our animadversions, under the general title of "Miseries Domestic." Tes. A better there cannot be, and I will again undertake to play my part to admiration-whatever Madam Testy, in the corner yonder, may think of the matter. You can't propose a meeting upon it too early for meto-morrow, if you please. Sen. It must be not only to-morrow, but "to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow," if we mean to exhaust it;-as there is so much to be said, then, we cannot begin too soon, as you say; and especially, as the sorrows |